#braincoins

this was actually kinda difficult to answer but I think I'll answer with my go to details I like to do warm up sketches with:

okay, first off - I am THRILLED I am not the only one that knows The Monster at the End of this Book

and second  -

LMAO!!!  okay, so, I went and looked.  And here’s what we got

EP 01: What the Thunder Said

The WasteLand V: by TS Eliot

EP 02: Princess of Nothing

The Fate of Crowns #2 by Rebecca L. Garcia (I am iffy on this one, but its the first thing that popped up on the search)

EP 03: Neverwhere Land

Heavy Metal (movie)

EP 04:  The Monster at the End of this Book

(look this BETTER be what's being referenced.  There is NO other option as far as I’m concerned)

EP 05: The Fire Sermon

The Wasteland III by TS Eliot

which is a direct reference to

Ādittapariyāya Sutta

EP 06: The Knight, Death and the Devil

by Albrecht Dürer (total chills if this one is right)

EP 07: Speak the Words

(not sure about this one but, again, first in the search that used ‘words’ instead of just ‘word’)

EP 08: A Game of Chess

which - okay, couldn’t find a direct reference but it IS a super vague title. 

This was so much fun, thank you!

Send me a pairing and a number!

26. Tactile

At first, Ao Bing assumes it is entirely because this body is new, born from meditation and plum tree wood, and therefore overly sensitive to new stimuli. The brush of the wind across his cheeks, the silken cascade of sand through his fingers, the heat of the sun on the top of his head, the shift of his clothes against his skin.

But he soon forgets to notice those sensations. They fall back into background noise, unheeded by-products of corporeal existence. But there is one sensation that continues to be vivid, incandescent and impossible to ignore.

Nezha’s touch.

When they’d first emerged once more, Nezha had taken his hand, thrown back his head and laughed. Those had been the first sensations of this new-born body, and they had been wonderful. Nezha had chosen, not long after that, to move the Qiankun Hoop to his wrist on a more permanent basis. His pouty explanation had been about being shown more respect in an older body, and Ao Bing had thought that was a sound explanation.

He also assumes it is normal for friends to touch: a hand on a shoulder, a nudge with a foot, fingers brushing when they walk side by side. And yet… Ao Bing cannot get used to it. Everything else in his new body has become routine once more, but Nezha’s touch continues to be like fire through his clothes, a brand on his skin. It burns.

Next he assumes that it is because of Nezha’s heightened power, and his affinity with fire itself. Nezha is made of flames and heat, his burning core pouring from him when enraged or in combat, surely it would make sense that his touch would burn as well. Ao Bing asks the only person he can ask without fear of mockery, and that is Madam Yin.

“Madam Yin, may I ask you a question?”

She looks up from polishing her sword, tilting her head to the side with a look of fond exasperation. “A-Bing, I’ve told you, call me Auntie!”

He can feel himself flush, both at the term of endearment and the request for a familiarity he does not feel he deserves. He is torn between obeying his elder and respecting her, so he merely sidesteps the issue for now.

“Does Nezha burn you when he touches you?” he asks.

Madam Yin blinks for a moment, then taps her chin thoughtfully. “I can’t say his touch is any different to that of anyone else… maybe a little bit warmer, but not by much. Why do you ask, A-Bing?”

Ao Bing shakes his head quickly. “No reason. Thank you, Madam Yin!” He bows and quickly leaves, the mystery no closer to being solved.

The obvious conclusion is that Nezha’s touch does something unique to him and him alone, which is puzzling, but perhaps can be linked to the very circumstances of their existence, and their affiliations in the elemental world: they are the Demon Orb and the Spirit Pearl, and they are fire and ice. They are opposites, so it might be that they react differently to each other than to others. The answers he seeks are probably best found via an immortal, so he turns to the only one he knows right now.

“Master Taiyi Zhenren,” he says, bowing deeply. The man is meditating within Mountains and Rivers and Ao Bing hates to disturb him (especially because he has so many centuries of cultivation to recuperate thanks to Ao Bing’s own mistakes), but this is a dilemma he needs a solution to.

“What can I do for you now, Ao Bing?”

Ao Bing explains his predicament in the clearest way possible. Taiyi Zhenren strokes his moustache.

“Perhaps… there have never been two individuals like you two before. Who knows!” He purses his lips pensively. “Did that happen before you were in the Lotus?”

Ao Bing thinks back. He fought with Nezha, and they held hands during their final stand against the heavenly lightning, but… He shakes his head. Taiyi Zhenren, to his surprise, then smirks.

“Well, it is a mystery then! But in all my infinite wisdom, I see that perhaps this could be a learning exercise for you!”

Ao Bing nods seriously, and bows. “Thank you, Master.”

One small part has been solved, but that leaves the rest still obscure. He muses that perhaps experimentation should be attempted, but he is jolted from his thoughts by Nezha’s fiery and unmissable arrival upon his Wind-and-Fire Wheels.

“Ao Bing!” he cries. “Come with me!”

His hand wraps around Ao Bing’s wrist, and it’s like lightning through his veins, red hot and sudden. He cannot stop himself from being dragged from the fortress and down into the town, towards the marketplace. There is a new stall there, and that is where Nezha is headed, but Ao Bing can only think of the hand around his wrist, and the heat of its touch.

When Nezha lets go, the warmth remains, and Ao Bing gently touches his wrist, marvelling at it. He looks up, at Nezha, who is ordering two sticks of sugared haws for them, and finds his heart is racing.

“Here!” Nezha offers, holding out one of the skewers, and Ao Bing takes it with a nod of thanks. Their fingers brush, and Ao Bing feels that fire again. It spreads to his face now, and he can’t dare to imagine how he looks.

He follows meekly while Nezha leads the way, headed to a quieter space in the shade of an old gingko tree. The haws taste good, but he barely realises it; he is far too focused on the boy beside him. Nezha breaks through the hardened candy shell with his sharp teeth, and Ao Bing finds himself hiding a chuckle behind his sleeve.

“Oh, finally!” Nezha says. “I thought you’d forgotten how to smile!” He leans forward. “Stop thinking so hard, you’ll get wrinkles.”

He pokes Ao Bing right between his eyebrows, just below the Spirit Pearl mark, and Ao Bing feels his face glow. And suddenly, he feels brave. He has been brave before, foolishly so, so it isn’t hard to do so again. He reaches up and takes Nezha’s hand. He lowers it, and threads their fingers together, lacing them tight so there are no gaps between them. Nezha’s breath catches.

hahahahahaha!!!

💕😌

Sorry, I've been meaning to answer this ask. Le sigh. Sorry about the delay. And to no surprise, this response is long...much like the memories of my Irish ancestors.

About my day:

Nothing too interesting happening today. I have a math course I'm taking today at 11:30am this morning. Statistics. Not really the most interesting topic in the mathematical world, but apparently I'm doing well despite having this terrible ability to completely fudge up math. I've never really been mathematically minded. Writing on the other hand...

Yesterday I took my immunosuppressant. AKA, the whole reason I'm not working because of the COVID-19 virus. Not sure if you knew, but I'm a CNA. It's really frustrating for me to not be working right now, but doctors really won't want to release me to work despite this is something I've been trained to do: take care of people when they're ill. I was angry about it at first and frustrated too.

When I take inject the drug, I'm usually not feeling too up to doing much after words for the next couple of days. Because when you use an immunosuppressant, as the name suggests, you're messing around with your immune system. You get tired quickly. Normal things are laborious. Which makes sense since you're again playing around with how your immune system reacts.

I hear people freak out about how they feel when they're ill or any various amount of immune responses (low grade fever, aches, or fatigue as examples) and I always get the urge to reassure them. Such as after a vaccination, this is generally a typical immune response and as weird as it sounds is a good thing. Your body is literally learning how to fight off the virus and in order for it to do so, it has to act like this is the actual thing (despite it not being). It's receiving a blue print, or at least a partial one, and is adding it to their book of infection combat battle plans. Like an actual event where "disaster" could strike, you need to practice it and that's what your body is doing. It's learning.

It's pretty damn amazing your body can do that.

The problem is: my immune system is good...too good. In this case, more is not good. It's hyperactive. It makes too much. What happens next is what I like to describe as: my immune system gets bored. With nothing interesting to battle, it begins to recognize healthy tissue as if it were an intruder. It attacks healthy organs, joints, muscles, ligaments, and cartilage. What I need is an ideal amount rather than more. Like Charmin Ultra: Less is more (as the commercial states).

I take this medication for PsA or Psoriatic Arthritis. I have Psoriasis which is more than just a skin condition. With PsA, my arthritis is caused by the loss of the healthy tissue. It's in four joint in my lumbar of my back. Between the L1 and L2, the L2 and L3, the L3 and L4, and the L4 and L5. You'd be surprised how much you move your back when you walk or go up and down stairs. When I'm not on my medication, I'm so stiff it's so hard to do much and I'm in massive amounts of pain. On a scale of 1-10 of pain (and 11 being labor pain), I'd rate it about an 8 on a bad day. It's enough for drs to rx Tylenol 3. I hate taking it. I hate the idea of taking it because I know doctors are hesitant to rx it because of how addictive opoids can be.