Do the red geraniums matter?

When we think about media literacy, we often think about tropes, cinematic and literary devices, references, and Easter eggs. All of these are explicit ways for creators to communicate with us, the audience.

But we know there’s a lot of *implicit* communication happening too, such as how a character is lit from scene to scene, the color palette of the set, and camera angle.

Not everything in an artwork is on purpose. But Rem’s red geraniums must be intentional, at least in Stampede. They qualify as a repeating motif, even rendered gigantic in E12.

So what the hell do they mean?!

Well, kids, I consulted the Oracle today. By which I mean I Googled it.

Have you heard about the language of flowers? Go check it out, it’s almost as fascinating as tarot and not nearly as likely to get you kicked out of church.

Turns out there’s a ton of possibilities here. It could be as simple as Rem’s birth flower. That would make her a Scorpio, and some say Scorpios prefer dark red flowers.

It could be a reference to the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, which uses red geraniums to signify redemption, forgiveness of cruelty, and above all hope for a better future.

In Wicca, red geraniums symbolize protection. Rem gives up her life protecting others, and Vash spends all his energy and time protecting others. So red geraniums fit perfectly with this theme.

I think we can dismiss the love-letter meaning “Your smile bewitches me!” Even I can’t rationalize that one. But there’s a lot of other weird stuff too, like how the Victorians defined all geraniums as “stupidity or folly”. In numerology, it’s supposed to be the number 7. They also apparently are good for repelling squirrels, attracting pollinator insects, and are deer resistant. Make of that what you will.

I like the Wiccan protection meaning a lot, but the TKaM reference makes sense to me. Vash believes it is never too late for anyone to choose peace. He is all about redemption and hope.

Anybody else have thoughts to add?

Untamed Spring Fest 2020

Day 2: Blossom

Sizhui thinks he can break most of the major events of his life down to flowers. (Involves Lan Sizhui/Jin Ling)

Apologies for the excessive use of flowers and flower meanings. I FELL DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE OF FLOWER MEANINGS AND SPENT LITERAL HOURS RESEARCHING SORRY IF THIS IS THE MOST PRETENTIOUS THING YOU'VE READ EVER

Sizhui thinks he can break most of the major events or revelations in his life down to flowers. His first real memory of his time in the Burial Mounds was centred around Xian-gege finally managing to grow vibrant pink lotus flowers in the arid, toxic soil of the Burial Mounds and himself tasting the lotus roots for the first time after that. Of course, Sizhui doesn’t remember that whole incident clearly until much much later; Xian-gege’s unrestrained joy at his achievement, and Uncle Ning and Aunt Qing’s fondly exasperated looks towards Xian-gege, all lost to the ravages of time and a raging fever. 

His earliest memories of the time after he is rescued and adopted by Hanguang-Jun are of following him around like a little duckling as he walks like a silent ghost to the cottage that once belonged to Hanguang-Jun’s mother and the purple gentians that she so loved. Once there, he sits in silence as Hanguang-Jun (though at that time he was ‘Father’) plays a mournful melody on his guqin, full of longing for someone who Sizhui has long forgotten, as little blue forget-me-nots crept up around his feet. 

The day Sizhui sets out for Mo Village with Jingyi and the other juniors, he absent-mindedly registers a sprig of white lily-of-the-valley growing near the entrance of the Cloud Recesses. 

At Dafan Mountain, and later in Yi City, he and Jingyi make friends with Young Master Jin, Jin Ling, and he cannot help but think that despite his arrogant and brusque nature, the peony on his robes suited him well. 

After Guanyin Temple, when all his memories of being a little boy named Wen Yuan flood back into his mind, he runs after Senior Wei and Hanguang-Jun. When he catches up to them, he smells the pine-like smell of a rosemary bush nearby, and barrels head-first into Senior Wei to give him a hug. 

Sizhui, Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen are visiting Jin Ling at Koi Tower and quickly decide to head off for a night hunt in one of the villages under the Jin Sect. It’s just as exciting as always, adrenaline rushing through their veins and the uncontrollable exhilaration of working as a team to defeat fierce corpses all on their own. Wen Ning, who Sizhui knows is following them in the shadows to make sure they have back-up if they need it, does not need to make an appearance at any point of the night. Sizhui can’t help but feel proud of that. It’s as they’re making their way back to Koi Tower, a boisterous group with Jingyi and Jin Ling squabbling as loudly as ever with Sizhui trying to mediate and Ouyang Zizhen egging the two bickerers on, when Sizhui realizes it. Jin LIng has just said something ridiculous while elbowing Jingyi, which still makes Sizhui feel unbearably fond, when Sizhui finally puts a finger on what he’s been feeling recently around the other boy. Later, he wonders if it can really have been a coincidence that it is at that very moment that Jin Ling brushes against a lilac flower and yelps as if it were a ghost, leaving Jingyi laughing at him for the next ten minutes while Jin Ling’s face flushes progressively darker in embarrassment. 

A few weeks after his revelation, Sizhui is still not sure what to do about his feelings for Jin Ling. After all, Jin Ling is the Sect Leader of the Jins, and more than that...he does not know how Jin Ling would respond. Would it make everything awkward between them? If that were that case, better to leave it all unsaid, he thinks. He pets the fluffy white bunny on his lap as he thinks it over again. He’s almost desperate enough to go to Hanguang-Jun - or worse, Senior Wei! - for help, when Jin Ling takes matters entirely out of his hands. A flustered disciple comes up to him with an ornately gilded gold box in his hands. “Package for Lan Sizhui, from Sect Leader Jin!”

Sizhui thanks him, curious as to what Jin Ling could be sending over and why it’s so extravagantly packed - even more fancy and excessive than typical for the Jin Sect! He opens it and lets out a soft gasp. Inside is an exquisite comb, with intricate patterns of clouds and peonies on it. Placed above this is a single red tulip and a slip of paper. Sizhui reaches for the paper, though he’s certain that this gesture is difficult to misinterpret; there can only be one reason Jin Ling is sending him this. Sure enough, the letter reads, in Jin Ling’s usual brisk, no-nonsense script - ‘Dear Lan Sizhui, your beauty, elegance and loyalty is incomparable. I am grateful to call you my friend; I would be honoured if you would allow me the privilege of courting you. - Jin Ling.’ 

Sizhui chuckles; it seems like Jin Ling has actually learnt something from all those boring lessons on politicking and refined speech he had been complaining about. His laughter gives way to a soft smile; he has a red chrysanthemum to find. 

Flower meanings:

Lotus - purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration, and rebirth

Purple gentian - passion, charm, loveliness and sweetness (for his mother)

Forget-me-not - true love memories, do not forget me

Lily-of-the-valley - return of happiness

Peony - riches, prosperity and honour

Rosemary - remembrance

Lilac - first love

Red tulips - declaration of love

Red chrysanthemum - symbol of love 

Prompts by @fytheuntamed

Read on AO3 at

Down the rabbit hole level 1 part 3

We continue on from part 2 with hospital Rick and I will also explain the symbols above.

Back to Rick

Rick looks around the hospital and only finds Death. He gets out of the hospital by entering his own “dark tunnel” it’s the stair well, he is wearing his hospital gown and closes the door, its pitch black until he lights a match and starts down the stairs.

  He gags as it smells like death; this is another burial cycle for Rick but it will also show us how long it will take for Beth to get through her burial/being gone stage. We have all heard Beth referenced as the light at the end of the tunnel and also as a little flame in the dark that went out. Well Rick lights 3 matches while in this tunnel until he reaches the hospital door and opens it to daylight. Life again for Rick but for Beth since she entered that tunnel in season 5 it will be 3 matches or seasons before we see her story start playing onscreen again.  Added extra: Does anyone really think it’s a coincidence Emily Kinney named her album: This IS war??? She knew she would be back in the all-out war arc not prior. But that’s another part for the level 2 rabbit hole.

Rick comes out of the hospital (tomb, tunnel) and sees light (life) (note the 2 next to the door, telling us we will see this twice which we did with Beth when she and Noah escaped

Then dead bodies everywhere (death)

  Rick comes out of the hospital (tomb, tunnel) and sees light (life) then dead bodies everywhere (death) he then starts heading home (burial), looking for his family.

He comes across the Army base complete with helicopters the first helicopter has a big 7 on it and swords

(note Rick hasn’t found his family yet so a while after coming across the helicopter with the seven on it he does but it’s not till e3, 3 seasons for Beth and interesting the helicopter has swords on it which is a combination of season 7 and the big spot combined, when the helicopter fell through the roof in s4e1 and Rick and Michonne fell through the Roof, Michonne with her sword in s7 just a different loop of this scene.

There are tents, equipment (basically the big spot in s4e1 repeated but also many other scenes throughout the entire 7 seasons are tied to this scene, the loops are for everything as i said).

We then see Rick walking through a residential street and he comes across a push bike, he picks it up and rides the rest of the way home (Push bikes are a symbol tied to Rick and loops of Rick which is interesting because Beth is a loop of Rick and Boots is a loop of Beth and the garbage group rode in to ASZ on bikes in S7.

Rick gets home and if you haven’t seen the missing spoilers for the white houses that Beth was filming at in s5 that have not been aired yet then you need to and compare them to Rick and Lori’s house, they are defiantly representations of each other not exactly the same but similar, we will see this location looped with Beth, when her family have left her behind.

  Note the bed and quilt here at Rick's house is a loop of Beth's quilt at the farm.

Lori and Carl are gone; he breaks down in the living room crying on the ground and asks himself if this is real… telling himself to wake up and slapping himself on the head.

(This same loop of having people you love being gone and thinking this must be a dream because it's so crazy is repeated with many characters. It’s also a reference to the biblical rapture theme where believers in Christ will be taken up to heaven during a 7 year time of tribulation on the earth, and it also refers to the alien abduction alternate ending in the comic's. Carols “here’s not here and neither are you” comments in s4, are another depiction of this and Carol when she says this in S4 is in her own burial/missing/abduction loop

He eventually goes back out the front of the house and what number is Rick’s house?

8

1

7

  I mean wow really? Read from the middle down S1 to S7 for Rick, top down S8 to S1 for Beth they are bookends and repeats.

It can also be read like this starting in the middle S1 to S7 then backwards S7 to S1 then forwards again S1 to 8 ( 8 being the coda alternate ending) This incorporates 2 loop of the pattern and then a coda.

Rick goes back to his house looking for his family and read downwards top to middle S8E01Beth will find her family (HWY18 or season 1-8)

It’s here at the house that Dwain and Morgan find him they are concerned he has been bit but realise he can talk but Dwight knocks him out with a shovel so they take him to a different house up the street and while he is unconscious tend to his wounds.

It is in this house Morgan takes him to that we see the first representation of many future locations that will all be the same but different at the same time, it will loop back around many times with different characters and story lines.

The surrounding decoration and lighting give us clues as to where else we might have seen this place. The walls have pictures of rivers, water, bridges and flowers, candles and food are present, one individual being cared for or learning from another.

A few future representation of this house that comes to mind are: Carol’s house in s7, Morgan’s episode with Eastman s6, Michonne and Rick’s dinner s7, and the funeral home s4, the funeral home is also linked to Oceanside as we see ocean and flower pictures all over the walls there Oceanside is another loop of the funeral home. That is why the picture of Negan and the truck S7E16 have the following symbols

close up

Coffin, bat and Negan all = Death x 3 death items = lasting death coda.

So now the story is going to repeat but backwards (repeat music backwards) S7E06 (A new loop of it) then E13 but not S7E13 (the rest indicates a time jump), no we are going back to S4E13 the 3rd sheriffs story and also the 3rd zombie girls story, just like the numbers on the car read backwards.  And the GH well that = Grady Hospital. Also note the Daryl look alike standing under the symbols.

It just so happens that from S7E16 back to S4E13 (where Beth first got taken and most likely bit will be just 3 episodes short of exactly 3 full seasons since she first went missing (was taken), and the 3 areas of her story we are still missing are:

Her reunion, which is symbolically represented by the 6 on the truck (it’s the 3 on the sheriff’s car x2, the second representation of Rick’s reunion. This will be linked to a loop of Oceanside S7E06 which is a loop of the original quarry reunion location of Rick's.

The second thing we are missing from her story is what they did with her “body” when they got separated (which is another representation of the first time she went missing in S4E13).

How she survived getting shot and bit at Grady hospital (like Rick the first time in e1).  Are you excited?

I will continue explaining these symbols in more detail in part 4

Thanks for reading Team Defiance I hope you're all having a awesome day or night wherever you are!  

i decided to infodump about my RWBY OCs, Team STAR under the cut!! they’re part of a conjoined alternate universe with my friends and we’re gonna have our own little story/AU and it’s gonna be awesome

this post is a Work In Progress because i don’t have the mental energy to come up with everyone’s backstory and semblance in one go. feel free to hmu with suggestions, thoughts, comments, ideas, whatever i love to communicate

(“Partnered with” refers to Beacon’s method of pairing up students and does not necessarily mean they are in a relationship)

Spica Viridian

She/her. Leader of Team STAR. Partnered with Arcturus.

Personality: Kind, enthusiastic, cheerful, warm, loving. She's shy around new people. She’s definitely the “team mom” type and works hard to keep everyone together. She can’t stand arguing mostly because she has a bit of a temper that can grab a hold of her and swallow her up, so she tends to fight back by appearing as mellow and soft as she can. Her biggest weakness is when things don’t go her way, she tends to spiral out of control pretty quickly. 

Name significance: Spica is a star in the spring triangle. Viridian is a shade of green.

Likes: Flowers, nature, sunlight, adventure, fashion, Arcturus, fantasy, the sky, rabbits, peaches, strawberries 

Weapon:  Javelin/crossbow combination named Starose Blossom

Semblance: Sun’s out guns out Increases her physical strength, defense, and speed when the sun is high, especially outdoors. Decreases her physical strength, defense, and speed when the sun is not out. Fighting indoors is actually worse than fighting at night, as the moonlight is reflected sunlight so it makes her pretty much average strength. Her first strategy in any indoors fight is to blast a hole in the ceiling.

Backstory: Spica grew up in Mistral with her two siblings - an older sister and younger brother - and their mother. Her father died when she was younger. Her mother works as a botanist as well as growing medicinal herbs, so Spica grew up learning about and loving plants. Her older sister, Heather, decided to go to Haven to become a Huntress with the goal of travelling outside the kingdoms and studying the plant life and world outside the kingdoms for clues on how to better humanity, and perhaps find a way to expand civilization. Spica didn’t want to be left alone, and had an interest in Heather’s goals as well, but Heather insisted it was too dangerous for her to become a Huntress. So, unbeknownst to her family, Spica traveled off to Beacon to pursue becoming a Huntress herself.

Pinterest aesthetic/moodboard for Spica

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Leah Tearose

They/them or she/her. Partnered with Rebecca.

Personality:  Fun, creative, playful, mischievous, loyal, clever. Leah hides behind a very silly persona but is actually highly perceptive and one of the most tricky and strategic members of Team STAR. Despite all they’ve been through, Leah is still able to genuinely smile and loves to be around other people, though with their friendliness comes a slight edge of caution. Leah is the type to see the good in everyone and believes people are mostly good. That being said, she loves animals even more, especially puppies. They’re an artist and paints a lot, often doesn’t bother to clean up and just walks around covered in paint.

Name significance: Leah was loosely taken from Denebola, a star in the spring triangle. (Leah is pronounced LAY-uh). Tea rose is a shade of pink.

Likes: Painting, red, hearts, puppies, other people, romantic comedies, cherries, shirley temples, roller coasters, high places, art, pop/electro music

Weapon: A lance that unfurls into a metallic whip. Can be loaded with different kinds of dust - Leah’s favorites are fire and ice. Named Denebolance.

Semblance: Denebola symbolizes misfortune and disgrace... I wanna do something with that. Ideas?

Backstory: Leah’s story is that of an inverted tragedy. She started with nothing and rose up from the ashes. Leah is a pillar of strength and resolution - they’ve been beaten down every step of their childhood but now they’re free and happy and surrounded by love and able to do the things they love. I haven’t worked out the specifics of Leah’s backstory yet.

Pinterest aesthetic/moodboard for Leah

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Arcturus White

He/him. Member of Team Star. Partnered with Spica.

Not pictured: black wolf tail because I decided to make him a wolf faunus.

Personality: Quiet, moodly, easily frustrated, temperamental, sensitive. Has a carefully cultivated facade. He basically is a “jerk with a heart of gold” but he doesn’t intend to be a jerk; he just has bad social skills and a rough past. Spica was the first person he really opened up to and he cares about her immensely. Just like Spica, he has quite the temper, but his is more slow burn while hers is more explosive and dies quickly. He has little interest in people outside the small group of people he cares about (all of Team STAR and a few others) 

Name significance: Arcturus is a star in the spring triangle. White is a color.

Likes: Black cats, music, technology, stormy weather, outer space, science, science fiction, data and coding, the moon, abstract art, Spica

Weapon: Kusarigama. The sickle part is pretty big and the weight at the end is spiky. He has to quickly maneuver and jump around in his fighting style to use both the sickle and the weight effectively while avoiding and utilizing the chain that holds them together. The sickle has a pistol attached. Named Fenris Howler.

Semblance: He can blend in completely with the shadows - that is, wherever there are shadows, he can become temporarily invisible. It’s like he becomes one with them. Obviously, he prefers to fight in places with low light and lots of shadows. Bright lights and complete darkness are his enemies.

Backstory: Arcturus is from Menagerie. He was an orphan who fled from the orphanage and fell in with the wrong crowd - he actually spent some of his teenage years in a gang. After a falling out with the leader that led to someone’s death (I’m still thinking about this) he decided to run to Beacon, where he thought they wouldn’t follow him. Naturally an albino, he dyed his hair from white to dark purple as a semi-disguise, just in case. This is all really up in the air I just came up with this on the spot please help me

Pinterest aesthetic/moodboard for Arcturus

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Rebecca Regulus

She/her. Member of Team STAR. Partnered with Leah.

Personality:  Vain, confident, intelligent, resourceful, and elegant. Has a royal air to her. Unlike many, her vanity is not at the expense of other people - she loves other people almost as much as she loves herself, and she’s rather kind. She’d rather build people up to be (almost) as glorious as her than tear them down. She has a knack for leadership and responsibility, and was surprised she wasn’t the leader of team STAR. 

Name significance: The hex color #663399 is called Rebecca Purple. Regulus is a star in the spring triangle. 

Likes: Girls (in a lesbian way), gold, leadership, history, architecture, deer, chess, beauty, lilies, culture / anthropology, learning, helping others find their own beauty, victory

Weapon: A golden broadsword. Not sure what other modifications? She’s the type to just use a regular sword and be badass with just that. Named Aurum Caliburn.

Semblance: Undecided. Thoughts/ideas?

Backstory: She was actually born pretty poor. Her parents “didn’t want her” so she was raised by her aunt. She lived on the poverty line for most of her life, but her sheer determination, hard work, and intelligence helped her become a perfect student and get her an entry to Beacon (also a full scholarship? Does Beacon cost money?) She’ll admit that she’s mostly here for the money, but not wholly for selfish reasons - she wants a better, more comfortable life for herself, her aunt, and her cousins. She’s made some money with her skills already and puts on a pretense of being already rich - it makes her feel more confident.

Pinterest aesthetic/moodboard for Rebecca

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Team Attacks & Relationships

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Arcturus x Spica 

Combo name: Total Eclipse (using their semblances in combination), Nature’s Howl (using Arcturus’s chain and weight to swing Spica’s javelin?)

Interpersonal relationship: The two eventually end up dating. Spica is the first person Arcturus really trusts and opens up to. Spica is caring enough to see Arcturus has good intentions but doesn’t know how to deal with people, and Arcturus appreciates that someone actually cares enough to get to know them. They both have anger issues that manifest in different ways, but the two are able to calm each other down most of the time. Their relationship is healthy and built on mutual trust, kindness, and understanding.

___

Spica x Leah 

Combo name: Painted Roses (some kind of combo with Spica’s javelin and Leah’s whip used in combination to corner the enemy)

Interpersonal relationship: Spica really takes a shine to Leah’s silliness and creativity, and Leah likes painting Spica’s flowers. The two get along very well and enjoy hanging out together. Common pastimes include going to see movies together and going to fairs/festivals and art shows. When Spica gets overwhelmed or upset, Leah tries to calm her down; at first, Leah became very afraid when Spica showed her not-so-pretty side, but over time as they grew closer Leah learned to trust Spica and that Spica would not do anything to hurt them.

___

Spica x Rebecca

Combo name: Royal Garden (gotta think of what they can do together)

Interpersonal relationship: Spica respects Rebecca’s intelligence and confidence. Rebecca holds respect for Spica as well, however, there was a bit of tension when Rebecca did not get the leadership position. Although Rebecca isn’t too self-important, she is vain and took the news kind of badly. She tried not to hold it against Spica and uplift it, but she found it hard to commit to that and had a bit of internal struggle. She still holds a ghost of a grudge though the two work together quite well. They’re friends, but not as close as the others on the team.

___

Leah x Arcturus

Combo name: Blood Moon (that’s a terrifying name but a blood moon is when the moon appears red and red is leah’s color and arcturus is a wolf so the moon so)

Interpersonal relationship: Arcturus finds Leah a bit childish at first, but admires their cheerfulness. Upon learning of Leah’s harsh past, Arcturus begins to truly respect how easygoing and bubbly Leah can be even after going through such hardship. They share details of their past and form a close friendship built on the fact that they’re both trying to move on from their respective pasts. Leah’s cheerfulness begins to rub off on Arcturus, who becomes more laidback and even a tiny bit goofier (though it manifests in the form of sarcasm, usually). They genuinely enjoy each others’ company.

___

Leah x Rebecca

Combo name: Queen of Hearts

Interpersonal relationship: Being partners, Leah and Rebecca have had a lot of time to work together and get to know each other. Their friendship got off to a rocky start - Rebecca got frustrated with Leah’s messing around and not quite being as serious. Eventually, after having a heart-to-heart about Rebecca’s past and how she needed to do well and how she grew up on the poverty line, Leah became more understanding and promised to be more serious during training. The two formed a friendship where opposites attract - Rebecca influences Leah to be more serious and work hard, while Leah helps Rebecca relax and just enjoy herself instead of being so uptight all the time. They have a mutual appreciation of art, and Rebecca is always happy to pose for Leah’s paintings.

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Arcturus x Rebecca

Combo name: Purple Prose (Arcturus wanted something less pretentious but Rebecca insisted)

Interpersonal relationship: The two seemed to get along right off the bat. Arcturus is quiet and not good with people, but he can respect Rebecca’s methodical and commanding personality. He thinks her whole fancy/elegance thing is kinda dumb, and she thinks he’s too brooding and emo, but they do get along pretty nicely. They almost have something like a sibling relationship, and when they argue, it’s usually over something stupid like their attack name.

_____

Art

Arcturus sketch by @clokworke-arts

Arcturus, Spica, and 2 of my friend’s OCs by @truechastiefol

so 1989 came out 5 years ago???? How insane. 5 years ago on this day I turned only 18. I was in my first semester of university, living on residence. I had my very first midterm later that day. But I still woke up at the butt crack of dawn to go get my 1989 CD from target and spent the whole day studying to the songs and reveling in how different and beautiful this new pop sound of Taylor’s was (and still is, obviously). I had my exam, went out for dinner with friends and came back to my dorm room to listen more. By myself all night. Cause there was nothing I’d rather be doing in that moment. I can’t believe that was 5 years ago. But as a celebration of this album I really want to share what I love most about each of @taylorswift s songs from this album

1. Welcome To New York - An absolute banger. A perfect way to start the album and a beautiful celebration of new beginnings. My favourite lyric: Took our broken hearts, but them in a drawer.

2. Blank Space - The most iconic song that I showed to absolutely everyone when it first came out. All of the metaphors that Taylor uses is so magical and paints such a realistic picture of the character that she takes on. My favourite lyric: You’re the king, baby, I’m you’re queen; boys only want love if it’s torture.

3. Style - A ultimate bop that still has me bouncing in my car when it comes on. The melody is probably the catchiest thing that I had heard in a long long long time. I’m absolutely in love with the mystery/sneakiness that is happening in the lyrics and the sexiness of tays voice throughout the song. My favourite lyric: Take me home, lights are off he’s taking off his coat.

4. Out Of The Woods - One of my favourite songs off of this record. It tells such a beautiful story full of hope and cherished memories but also full of heartbreak and uneasiness. The lyrics have been piercing my heart for 5 years now and will always continue to. Especially that bridge. Especially the bridge from the 1989 tour. My favourite lyric: The entire song; We were built to fall apart and fall back together; Two paper airplanes flying; I walked out, I said I’m setting you free.

5. All You Had To Do Was Stay - So so so sad hidden behind such a catchy beat. This song got me through a really hard point in my life where I was so wrapped up in a love where I would have given everything and anything. After listening to this song on repeat for days (literally) I began to realize my frustration of giving everything I had and still having someone leave. And then wanting another chance, but not knowing if I could do it. This song literally helped me process every emotion during that process. My favourite lyric: The more I think abo it it now, the less I know; People like me are gone forever when you say goodbye; Why’d you have to go and lock me up when I let you in; You were all I wanted, but not like this.

6. Shake It Off - A classic that will forever be my ‘get on the dance floor now’ song. I remember when Taylor released this I was so excited about the trumpets and the catchiness. Her carefree demeanour. My cousins kids still request for me to play this song, to this day and have some of my most favourite memories dancing to this song with them. Also, the music video for this song helped me to stop caring about my horrendous, off beat dancing, uncoordinated dancing. My favourite lyric: At least that’s what people say; It’s like I’ve got this music in my kind saying it’s gonna be alright; I’m dancing on my own.

7. I Wish You Would - Tay did such an amazing job painting a vivid picture with the lyrics and story she chose. Having all of the memories come flooding back in while you’re missing someone and wishing you were still with them. Remembering the perfect, happy times together but also the crazy and tumultuous times and still wanting your person back. My favourite lyric: I wish you knew that I’ll never forget you as long as I live; Stand back where you stood, I wish you would.

8. Bad Blood - So in love with the bad ass vibes given off in this song. All of the metaphors and symbolism that Taylor decided to use to paint a picture of hurt, anger, and sadness. Another really really sad song hidden behind the most upbeat and ‘stuck in my head’ melodies. My favourite lyric: Bandaids don’t fix bullet holes; If you live like that, you live with ghosts;

9. Wildest Dreams - Debatably my favourite song on the album. From the slow, dreamy string instruments to the heart beat taking the place of a drum. Her lyrics and voice throughout the song are passionate and hope. I remember playing this song for my boyfriend and him falling in love with it too. I when I played it, we were at a point in our relationship where we didn’t quite know what direction we were heading. But we knew we had each other and the memories. My favourite lyrics: He’s so bad but he does it so well; Say you’ll see me again even if it’s just pretend; I bet these memories follow you around

10. How You Get The Girl - A song full of hope and promise for a future, where there was a hard past. Reminding someone of the best times in a relationship and painting a grand picture of how it will be in the future. So so romantic, which is shown through the magestic lyrics. This song is also super special to me and helped me to feel more ok with giving a second chance to a past love. Which was the best decision I could have made for me. My favourite lyric: Remind me how it used to be, with pictures in frames of kisses on cheeks; I would wait forever and ever.

11. This Love - Hauntingly, eerily, magical. The slow and juxtaposed lyrics are some of my most favourites tay has written. You can hear the confusion in the lyrics and in her voice. The lyrics paint such a beautiful picture of great memories of a relationship and what a relationship can be at its best, but also what it can be at its worst. My favourite lyrics: In silent screams, in wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this; Latern burning, flickered in my mind for only you; You showed up just in time; When you’re young you just run but you come back to what you need.

12. I Know Places - A song that I always re fall in love with every time I hear it. The recording clicks at the beginning and the end were so clever to add. You can hear the anxiousness in her voice in trying to get away from people. Wanting to just be alone. The outro is my favourite, showing strength in relationships and commitment and I just love it. My favourite lyrics: They take their shots but we’re bullet proof; You know for me it’s always you.

13. Clean - The healing song. Such a beautiful song. Outlining the depths of hurt and the destruction in a relationship in the most beautiful way I have heard. The drought with flowers dying of thirst, a wine stained dress that’s unwearable now, butterflies that turned to oh so common and unwanted dust that touches and covers everything. Still in awe with the lyrics Taylor put in this song. The chorus and bridge show the utmost strength and is a reflection of courage, bravery, and hope. My favourite lyrics: Youre still all over me like a wine stained dress I can’t wear anymore; because you’re clean don’t mean you don’t miss it.

14. Wonderland - I’m obsessed with Disney, I’m obsessed with Taylor. so naturally I’m obsessed with this song linking the two together. She so perfectly moulded the story of Alice in Wonderland together with her own experience. You see her own experience throughout the song - to the point where it seems like she wrote the story all by herself. She took elements of the story and pieced it together oh so beautifully together with her own experiences. Obsessed is a grand understatement. My favourite lyrics: s We took a wrong turn and we fell down a rabbit hole; We pretended it could last forever; Too in love to think straight; Whispers turned to talking and talking turned to screams; Didn’t you call my fears with the Cheshire Cats smile.

15. You Are In Love - The most beautiful love song Taylor has written. Filled with a love you could picture, a love everyone strives to have. A love with a best friend. A love with simple little joys. I absolutely love how Taylor included such little details into a song but made it so relatable and desirable. My favourite lyrics: You keep his shirt, he keeps his word; Two are dancing in a snow globe round and round.

16. New Romantics - The somber verse is met with a hopeful chorus, followed by a verse filled with confidence. In love with the idea of making the best of a situation where you are feeling lonely and being attacked by people. Making the most out of life; building castles of bricks thrown. My favourite lyrics: The best people in life are free; Please take me dancing.

By Izaak E. Wolfe

PUPILS OF THE ALCHEMIST- Preface Authors Note: “Life is for those of us whom are already dead, and if you comprehend this notion, then you too must be stuck in the ‘ether’. In unison, many of your pseudo-peers may at once begin to nod their heads, attempting to hurry along whatever point it is that you’re trying to make, because using their own thoughts is usually too mentally taxing. Following an obligatory smile with a nod whilst sprouting gleaming pleasantries such as “oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean!” with not a thought in their skull but what they’re having for lunch. Autonomous white Rabbits full of hollow, all essentially doppelgangers: Clones cut from the same cookie-cutter cloth of which Lewis Carroll pulled the wool over Alice's eyes. The very same rodents that are oft caught ‘running late’ wasting precious seconds digging holes until they fall asleep in one, killing time until they drop. You will come to know them well. The kind of under prepared, over opinionated personalities that might read through every book in an entire library just to get to the end of every sentence, staring through ripe meaning and symbolic psychic puzzles, not to ponder, or provoke thought, and certainly not to explore the realms of scribes and oracles in a place that can never be defined: understanding words merely as distractions, the kind of mind that would buy a bar napkin if it were leather-bound just so they could say they've got it on their bookshelf. These are the dreamers. They rarely, if ever, awaken. I for one, have always been of the opinion that when free from the burden of earthly interruptions the human brain starts to unlock dream like visionary experiences, Deja Voo and insights far more significant in nature and depth than what can be found tossing and turning, blurred by the restrictions of ‘sleep’. " Charles Luna Foxx 2016 

 Chapter One

 “The Heart that told no tales..” My smirk falls flat to molten hell. Disturbed by signs of life, I gasped to earth. “Ughh…” The phone was ringing. You can bet I was ignoring it. My breath smelt like I had spent Valentine’s Day French kissing an ashtray. Finding my own feet stumbling like a rigid rag-doll off my favorite chair; a heavy head was snatched from swollen hands. Temples pounding, Teeth grinding: Last night is stuck on that damned black-box flight recorder… Here, renegade neuro-terrorist’s commit espionage against their own life source. Receptor sites planning to pull the plug on grey matter that is the only thing integrating them with awareness. They will stop at nothing to destroy any and all traces of the last 24 hours. Direct orders from suits in the cerebral cortex were to “swipe magnets on the audio tapes”. Perhaps in the grip of some advanced interrogation, these sadistic rhetorical sabotage methods employed by our hideous obligatory enemies are indeed working, using some of the most effective tools of self-destruction that our hedonistic Universe has to offer, such as Amphetamines and Tennessee Whisky. Memory pulls a blank, and a glance around the study leads me to a solitary conclusion; this hangover is only just beginning to show its putrid mug shot. The stiff neck and near total absence of writing on the pile of pages beneath my jaw seems to indicate that I passed out colder than a corpse in the Arctic. It would not take the likes of “Sherlock Holmes” to conclude that I was neck deep in the narcissistic floodwaters of Moonshine misery, with not a bridge left to burn in my hearts splintered drought. After countless hours awake at the writing desk, with a brain so sore and sorry it all but caved in to intoxicant fueled hibernation: The empty bottle of Jack adjacent to my puddle of drool confirming this hypothesis. I greet today with a smile. A smile so big and fake that hopefully it conceals my gnawing sense of spite for all existence, or at least my dental plan. When I see the light it never hesitates to scorch my prying eyes, so I still wonder why people stare at shiny things like headlights to a frozen deer. Head spinning. Reeking of liquor, don’t know up from left on a compass, so bed ways is right ways right now. In a sloth like manner, I half tiptoe as if my own shadows footsteps were going to stamp out any hope that may be hiding, still virgin to the stench of bitter fate, in the far off shadows of a distant peaceful galaxy. So I tear the blinds shut, eat some sleeping pills, and before I could even say “fuck off world." BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP Slamming my fist against the ‘snooze’ button, I hissed as if there was someone listening: “..YOU KNOW I AM AWAKE YOU SADISTIC TIME KEEPING BEATBOX! Ughh!!”. With my face buried into my pillow, I try and think of one reason why I should get back out of bed. Whiskey is certainly not one of them. If I didn’t have college, I swear to GOD I would have thrown that fucking alarm clock out the window. I must admit, I became extremely depressed and aimless after the death of my father, and even though it was up to me to become the life blood of the family butcher shop (pun intended), I decided to shut the place down. I can barely get to sleep at night, especially not to wake up at 4 30 every morning to chop up bits of flesh and bone, elbow deep in entrails before midday. I couldn’t do it, and after the Dean tuned from a clockwork intellectual to madder than a fuckin’ hatter overnight... I’ve only been attending classes where the new girl sits opposite me. The rest of my lectures I frequently skip to “study” in the dark corners of the universities extensively cluttered library. It is more than coincidence that I have taken up a few of the classes that this enigmatic temptress frequents. From day one, it was apparent that she has an obsessive thirst to master any and all of the subjects she chose, with the outcome or topic seemingly being of a lesser importance to her than that of the process itself. So it was Anatomy, Biology, Chemistry, Taxidermy, Psychology, Latin, Surrealist Art, even the optional extracurricular sessions such as Cryptography and Journalism, 5 days a week. I don’t know why I didn’t drop out and get a job in the town Abattoir, the pay is good, and I don’t have a weak stomach. But I’m glad that I don’t live in that meat hook reality. Not wanting to miss a second of her company, even though we were strangers, I had a cold shower, got dressed, and hurried to the University, with a terrible headache, but the promise of a new day was not yet lost. I was haphazardly piecing together a port-folio, and I look up and our eyes met, and quickly flicked back to our “work”. There it came, and oh my, this was the first time I had heard her voice, and at once I was drowning in Ambrosia honey from the swarming beehive of my mind. “Hello” The beautiful stranger was smiling at me. “Have you seen the golden scarab??” she inquired under her breath, looking almost as if she had asked me the time… “..Oh I.. I.. Uh…I beg your Pardon?” She repeated once more, barely above a whisper. “Have you seen the Golden Scarab?” her eyes locked firmly onto mine. Unsure what she was referring to, shaking my head, “Sorry.” She blurted “Oh never mind. I was making an in joke, ha, I thought you reminded me of someone.. I’m mistaken.. How terribly rude.. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Veruka.” “Miss Veruka Luxx, I can assure you, it’s a pleasure to be met. I’m Arthur Lilly.” I replied, but she was already lost in her workbook, writing fiercely. I could read paragraphs from the corner of my eye, from where I was sitting. The paragraphs were describing in full an artistic process, subconscious snapshots, perhaps an indulgent outburst praising the randomness embraced by the paper game, “consequences”. The “Exquisite Corpse” method was used by William Burroughs and many before him. I overheard her mumbling, something about synchronicity, and something in a language I failed to recognize, whilst preparing a short film required for an assessment. My contribution was just footage of life-prisoners from Alcatraz, back before the rock was broken and became yet another unkempt piece of tourist crap floating in the San Francisco Harbor, I thought it was intriguing, In between 1943 and 1945 surgeons experimented on the murderers of murderers, the rapists of rapists, Lobotomizing the prisoners and then put half of the test subjects in isolation with food and water and half in a cell with a wilting rose in a vase and no drinking water. The lobotomized inmates with food and water refused to eat or drink or sleep until they died, using all conscious energy to claw at the walls.…The other half, refused to watch the rose die, every time the thorns were bare and the petals fell, wilted, the inmates burst into a fit of grief, crying their eyes out until their tears found the cuttings…. and the rose returned to vibrant health, bringing a smile to their face, and that, right there, soppy bullshit aside, the prisoners with roses managed to see the flower through its cycle, like clockwork, when those petals returned, those inmates were found dead with a smile on their face. I liked the contrast, but spliced the footage poorly and overdubbed readings from the novel “The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.” Everyone in class was looking through the projection screen behind me with a thousand yard stare, and “Thank you Mr. Lilly. Now Mr. West, Your presentation is up next.” Mr. Peaslee boomed from his desk as I returned to my seat. My eyes were back on the strange Veruka as my new accomplice lent forwards and said softly, “Alcatraz Island has some incredible wildlife, but that rose is one of the rarest in the world….. One of.” I nodded, “There are some divine books on all kinds of sacred ornamental plants in the Vulshwaltz wildlife section, I have to return some after class and choose my reading for the week. Perhaps you would like to join?” I said, as charmingly as possible. She looked me right in the eye “Really?!” she said with a wicked grin. “I’ve not been too welcomed by the other students… I’ve been so lost while trying to get to know the Campus that the Library has thus far been untraceable! I need a new friend who can show me around actually..” Veruka laughed, I was transfixed by lust and just as I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could stumble over even one syllable, the bell rang out and class had been dismissed. “Oh, what!? You haven’t seen the Vulshwaltz Library at all yet!?” “No! I hear it’s like a literary maze though. I’d be delighted to get lost in the ‘History’ section with you anytime you like! If you’ve got no plans for lunch, you could even take me there right now, Mr. Arthur.” Her smile was intoxicating. I grabbed my school satchel, and we walked towards the door. “Well Miss. Luxx, only a fool could refuse such an honest request! Right this way my friend.” And with that, we walked down the corridor. Her pupils were gleaming behind her glasses, but for a second as they caught the light, In my mind, a golden scarabs reflection, scurried away. We stood still for a second as we exited the halls and I took great delight in Veruka’s excitement as it was her first time in this room, seeing hundreds and thousands of books, billions of pieces of peculiar information bursting at the seams. Dusty, leather-bound manuscripts, with instructions to decipher every language and symbol that is of use to mankind and even a few hundred pages of thus far indecipherable ancient tongues or perhaps the quotes of modern day secret societies, encrypted in plain sight. There are countless impressive Libraries in the World, But there’s only one of the “Vulshwaltz Vaults”. The lights hang down from the ceiling in glass flowers, downward like Belladonna Atropa flowers. I’m not sure if the “Deadly Lampshades” are there because of the irony, that old saying that everyone who works in a Library goes “mad as a Hatter”, or simply because the architects of our massive University had some, dare I say, questionable influences? “oh my goodness! Those Nightshade light fixtures are something out of Bella Lugosi’s wet dreams! Ahah!” Miss Luxx grinned in astonishment. “One almost wishes they were real, except for the fact that we would all be dead!” A cold, stern voice hissed back “They ARE real” the voice continued “and you ARE dead precious.” Of course, I knew this voice to be our very own, very proud, and equally VERY strange Librarian, Mrs. Nancy N. Escher LaTrisk. “I’m sorry?” Veruka said slowly. “The Flowers are real. They’re as real as any other lampshades, don’t you know?” Explained Mrs. LaTrisk, taking a sip of her tea “and you must be dead my dear! The last of Mr. Peaslees’s students never got to see graduation because they were all bored to death!” she said, turning the hourglass on the desk in front of her upside-down. “Mr. Arthur Lilly! I was under the impression your mother taught you manners!” Mrs LaTrisk was smiling at me. “OH! Of course! This is my new classmate and I’d have to say I’d take her as a friend over most of the chaps, Miss Veruka Luxx! I see you’ve spotted our humble Librarian, Mrs. LaTrisk!-“ “My name is Nancy Neri Escher LaTrisk, The boys call me Mrs. LaTrisk, But you can call me Nancy darlin’, Seeing as I’ll be calling you by your first” There was an awkward silence, at which point Mrs. LaTrisk drank some tea and exclaimed “anyway, Busy busy, always work to be done..” and she turned her attention to a copy of ‘Hidden Faces’. “oh yes, Mr. Lilly, your order arrived yesterday. It’s on my desk next to the typewriter” A brown paper satchel contained my new copy of ‘The Strange case of Dr. Jeckll and Mr. Hyde’. “Magnificent! Gracious Mrs. LaTrisk” “Righto, Well.. my oh my.. strange woman. Arthur, Is there anywhere we could sit and talk in private?” Miss Luxx blinked rapidly as a cool breeze swept through the room. As we walked deeper and deeper into the cacophonous life sized maze that Mrs. LaTrisk refers to as the “Bermuda of Books”, we found ourselves indeed lost in the history section. Veruka was pointing out a small window in the wall; she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small gold telescope, and beckoned me to have a look, directing my gaze to a plume of smoke funnelling out of a chimney in the most beautiful house on mount Titan. “Exquisite telescope Miss. Luxx, Where did you get it?” I said, intrigued. “Oh this is one of the smaller ones; I have a collection of telescopes in my study.” She looked through the eyepiece “I like to keep the fireplace on while I’m at Vulshwaltz so when I get back all tired it feels like home.” “That’s where you live?” my jaw dropped. “You live in a mansion?” “My grandfather’s in hospital so I’m taking care of the property. You should come and have a few drinks with me tonight. Otherwise it’s just me, the animals, and a big empty house...”

Chapter two 

-Perpetual Vermin in the Illusion of Time and Space- “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.“ I fumbled for notepad, attempting to look as if I were paying attention. The lecture was nearly over, and the bell would allow our dismissal from class no doubt very soon. I sat watching the clock hands go sloooowwwwllllyyy around from the corner of my vision, scribbling on my page a crescent moon, and the more I scribbled, it seemed the lecture were as if I was listening to it from a great distance. The blood drained out of my head, the ceiling pushed towards the sky, along with a room full my peers rendered brain-dead while the tables where they sat began to stretch and contort like a perpetually elongating hallway. A half a minute could last two million years.. Perish the thought. Sometimes I wonder just what exactly Salvador Dali mind had the persistence to remember behind his wild eyes as they observed a slice of camembert cheese melting in the sun. I glance quizzically at the empty chair to my right, “where in the hell is she?” I wondered. Her absence made me oddly uncomfortable. The divine and peculiar Veruka Luxx been my best friend for more than year now, but she remains as much of an enigma as when I first came to know her. Veruka and I, one could rightfully assume, shared a peculiar fascination in what would be most certainly considered taboo by the majority of our society. Veruka has a profound affection for Taxidermy, stuffed and preserved animal corpses, not to mention her absurd obsession for the languages and customs of ancient and lost civilisations. Our interest in all living creatures was naturally mirrored by our fascination for the “process of death”, the afterlife, the before life, and the possibility to reanimate the corpses of the deceased shortly after dying, using a customised injectable solution. We had killed, maimed and also reanimated the bodies of several rabbits, stray cats, rats, and guinea pigs, some even with promising results if the subjects managed to survive the process of animation for more than a few minutes. We have been a tad over absorbed in our little projects recently, and the nature of these experiments warranted my cause for concern. Luxx and I spent nearly all of our spare time engaged in “Staring at the bottom of the fountain of youth”… Yes, I suppose that’s one way to phrase it. Among other things her devotion to the subject of reanimating a multitude of deceased creatures knew no bounds, which fuelled my fascination and desires to assist her secret studies and to cover our trails all the more, from anyone whom might happen to have otherwise stumbled across our secret laboratory. Both Veruka and I were honorary students at the Vulshwaltz University in the town of Atlas, a rather expensive college, with infinite halls, chandeliers, libraries, top of the line science equipment (which we had slowly constructed our laboratory from, one beaker at a time, considering we were so trusted by Dean Allen Halsley himself, that he authorized us to stay behind to clean, autoclave and pack away every single piece of glassware unattended after classes, and the school had so many resources they didn’t appear to even ponder all the bits and pieces of “written off” laboratory hardware that the faculties staff would immediately replace.) Between the windowpanes were the endless paintings spaced perfectly evenly across the tall walls of the corridors, depicting everything from the Salem witch trials, The sun god Ra making his rounds in the minds of Egyptian painters and sculptors, and more typical of a white collar institution, images of decadent Kings and Queens from centuries otherwise mostly forgotten (all of them remarkably pale or blood red in the face, It often bemuses Luxx and myself to liken King Henry VIII’s face to that of a plump tomato ripe to burst. God awful inbred monarchy.) I look up from my scribbling, and she’s standing right next to me snickering at my absent mindedness, I wonder how long she had been standing there? The classroom is completely empty, and the clock tells me that the bell rang out about 15 minutes ago.. “Ground Control to Major Tom!?” She said with a smirk. “It’s time to go” “Where on earth have you been!” I croaked, flustered. “You scared the shit out of me, I thought something must’ve gone wrong” “Well” Luxx rolled her eyes, for a moment I could see my pupils reflecting back at me in hers, and a shiver went up my spine. “I’ve finally tracked down a recently deceased Human subject on which we can test my new formula.. Grab your things.” Her smile was both unsettling and comforting. We cleaned the science room, we cleaned the condenser, separatory funnels, catalyst reaction vessels, test tubes and various beakers, and using the key that the Dean entrusted us with, we opened the Haz-Chem safe, removed a couple of necessary precursors and once the classroom was packed up and tidy, Miss Luxx steered my attention to her unusually playful state of mind. We soaked in the evening as we began heading home bound, the place I had come to know as home, our humble abode, a sprawling property which Luxx was taking care of for her grandfather while he was in hospital. From the dust to the trees which touched the clouds, to the house that we had been using to conceal our gruesome experiments on deceased creatures which we would catch and put to death before attempted reanimation of their cadavers, sometimes yielding no result, sometimes a few unnatural flinches and as with most of our more “fortunate” incidents the creatures would turn rabid and rip their own bodies to pieces, after attacking anything in sight… But we pushed on, Luxx insisted that it was a simple matter of getting the right blend of synthetic compounds into the next formula, and something told me she was right. We left Vulshwaltz by foot, and with every step, the sun would sink deeper into the horizon, until at last we scaled the base of the mountain. It wasn’t long at all before I could see 54 rue du Chateau. The finest piece of architectural indulgence on the whole of the mountain, I bet her grandfather must’ve been proud, having built it by hand, brick by brick, brushstroke by brushstroke. Obviously, it was both mine and Veruka’s favorite place in all of Atlas, except for the Cemetery and the Library at Vulshwaltz. Overcome by dizziness, I was quick to catch my breath but for a peculiar moment, I almost thought these feelings of Deja Voo were rising to my attention as a hint that maybe this, right now, could all be just a dream. Then I remembered that even nightmares are more inviting than what lays in wait. As Miss Luxx explained what would be our plans for the evening, I unpacked our bags and polished a new glass beaker I had stolen for the lab. We headed upstairs for the attic, and my dear friend grabbed a spoon from the kitchen. Like ruby wine in flickers of the moonlight, I watched her lips tremble as she spoke. She weighed out precisely a quarter gram (250 milligrams to be exact) of our new silky powder and mixed it up. Luxx jabbed the needle in my arm and pulled back red, as I volunteered to Ginny pig our new batch of Amphetamine Salts. Suddenly I could feel a lightning storm pounding through my temples, as all of the blood rushed to my head, Luxx gave me a sickly smile, there was no denying we were both high as all fuck and I could not follow most of what she was saying because she was talking so fast and her eyes were utterly intoxicating. She stopped speaking mid-sentence, seemingly out of nowhere grabbing me by the neck and before I could blink she had pushed me up into the corner of the Attic, and with an incredible lust, our lips locked, and tongues entwined. My heart must have skipped a seismic thud, for this is the first time we stepped beyond the boundary of friends, and essentially the first time I had seen Luxx’s passion flare up for anything that still had a heartbeat. “Well, that certainly got your attention. Hah!” She smiled. I was breathless. “Work first, fun later, Hmm?” She looked me up and down. With that, she turned on her heels and took me to the false wall we had fitted in-between the cluttered, dusty Attic, and the hidden door to our surgical laboratory. She opened it and flicked the lights, revealing a lifeless figure stretched out on a long white table. Luxx, I could tell, was getting terribly nervous about something. The recently deceased human subject that Veruka had acquired was a frail old woman, whose face was extremely pale and the shade of blue that her lips had turned indicated that she had been dead since at least this morning. “Well well well! This is charming Luxx! Just fucking charming!” I mocked. The smell of necrotizing flesh was already near unbearable. “And what the fuck happened to her I wonder??” Luxx cleared her throat, “Well, hmm. It has been a long day indeed. Her family live not a great distance from here, I’ve known her son Edward for many years. As I was picking through my books before our late afternoon science class, studying the lineage of Queen Nefertiti when all of a sudden there were tremors on my doorstep accompanied by the deranged howling of what I presumed to be a badly injured German Shepherd. I rushed outside to find the howling was coming from an old woman writhing gruesomely in the mud on my driveway.” Shaking her head, Miss Luxx beckoned for one of my cigarettes. “I recognized the unfortunate Witch as Edwards mother, phoned his uncle immediately to alert him of the situation and ask if I could be of any medical help, as she was by now curled up twitching on my porch, grasping for dear life. He told me that she has been slowly going mad for years and by his voice… Well I could tell it had been driving him to drink, because he was slurring his concerns and at the same time attempting to hit on me. So as the family could not contact a competent doctor because of the particularly fatal strain of Flu that’s becoming somewhat of an epidemic in town recently, and screaming and delusional as she was when she arrived, the old woman appeared to assume an almost catatonic state of consciousness all in a matter of minutes, at the same time I could hear snoring on the other end of the receiver so I furiously hung up and carried her inside to my guest room, soon she was fast asleep after seemingly having made a miraculous recovery from her primitive psychotic episode.” With the upbeat melancholic chirp of a pessimist, I butted in “….And then?????” with an eyebrow raised above a bloodthirsty smirk, almost puzzled by my own sincerest solemn sarcasms, Luxx sighed “Her son Edward was suddenly knocking at the window, he said nothing except that he would stay by her side no matter what… Knowing I could trust Edward not to snoop around the house, I was beginning to ready myself for the back to Vulshwaltz, because I just needed your comforting presence after the intensely unexpected chain of events, by now I knew I was too late for class, but that was the lowest of my priorities. The incident seemed to reach an almost level of calm, but at that exact moment, the phone rang just as I was leaving home…. all I could hear was static noise and maniacal laughing in the earpiece….. Shrugging it off, I hung up just as Edward eerily called to me from the guest room. He emerged looking as though he had already long since mourned for his dear mother’s sanity, almost with a sigh of relief he said softly that she had just then passed in her sleep. I hid my smile behind gritted teeth… Mentioning that his uncle has already drunk away his inheritance, Edward also happened to mention, to my utter delight, that her final will declared that after death, her corpse was to be donated for the purposes of science, and because Edward has been a close neighbor for years, it goes without saying that he had already become well aware of my overachieving at University, The backlog of Anatomical Knowledge that propelled my status from a nerdy exchange student to an ‘Honorary’ Teachers Pet, not even mentioning the Deans trust in my ‘responsibilities’, …anyway, you can guess that it wasn’t very long at all before I had convinced Edward to go home to try and get some rest. He said his farewells under the impression that I had already arranged a hearse to Vulshwaltz’s medical research facility…. But after he left, I just hauled the lifeless bitch upstairs and rushed into town to find you so that we may finally take our experiments to the next frontier of reanimation…. To bring about the strange state of existence known as “Life” back to a completely rigid, non-responsive, breathless human cadaver…… “ The lovely Veruka Luxx burst out into hysterical laughter, unable to wipe the smirk off her divine face. Slightly disturbed, and still unable to stop thinking about Luxx’s soft and tender lips, all the while trying desperately to ignore the smell of the dead woman whom we were about to attempt to bring back from the spirit realm, to once again, in some post-mortal fashion, walk among the Taxpaying, Booze-Addled piles of flesh and bone, most commonly recognized as the “Living”. Apart from not being much good for conversation, the main difference between that of the “deceased persons” and of their more animated, opinionated, compulsively breeding counterparts, the “Living persons”, is simple. One has completed their cycle and has joined the “Land of the Dead” for the rest of eternity, while the other is still absorbed in the comparatively temporary distractions of day to day humdrum human emotions; From Serenity to Fear, From Kinship to Solitude. How fucking poetic. I’m to sober for this. Too much is never enough… My thoughts were racing. The air seemed to be getting thicker… “Hmm… The body’s whereabouts shouldn’t arouse any suspicion as long as no-one else in Atlas knows about her death, and provided her family doesn’t speak to anyone regarding her disposal requests” I said hastily “which I imagine they would not have any need to mention as a casual conversation topic to anyone of importance…. then we’re in the clear… Quick thinking by the way, my darling.. Any fresher and you could skin the fat off her and sell it down the butchers as offal.” I scoffed. Smiling dryly in acknowledgement, her eyes met mine and then looked quickly down at the tip of a .3 ml syringe that she had filled to the brim with a concentrated solution of her new “embalming concentrate” as we had deemed them), and I began preparing a large vein on the side of the woman’s neck for injection, as the solution had to enter the blood stream as CLOSE to the brain as possible. Luxx impatiently yet precisely performed the injection while I checked the cadaver for any vital signs of life. We waited for an hour, and Luxx mixed and injected more solutions into the subjects’ neck relentlessly. Just as we were preparing to admit failure, call it a night, and throw her corpse into the incinerator, without a seconds notice the old woman’s eyes darted open WIDE, and she let out the most ear-drum piercing blood curdling screams, wailing and screeching imaginable, far too unearthly for any human to possibly conjure the sound in their most depraved nightmares, let alone the breathless lungs of the dearly departed. Suddenly the undead subject stood up, froze stiff again, and fell on the floor with several liters of blood rapidly gushing out of her eyes, nose, mouth and ears. I gasped, unable to muster a word, and was frozen with fear. Luxx just shook her head, rolled her eyes and groaned with failure, she snapped. “Fuck.. Fuck.. Fuck… I think perhaps next time we should wait, at least another hour, before re administering the formula. I’ll put the incinerator on so we can dispose of her remains quickly.” Luxx leaned toward me and kissed me on the cheek. I stood, bewildered, horrified, and shivering. “Oh.. What a waste” I blurted, Naturally questioning my beautiful associates mental stability, but as my faith in her was still unshaken by the gruesome occurrence, I began to question my own sanity… As Veruka turned up the furnace to its highest setting, near 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, she hummed along to an unknown yet strangely familiar tune, and the impromptu cremation of our elderly lab-rat was complete…… not much is left of that wrecked atrocity save a red hot pile of ashes. Attempting to appear un-phased by the evening’s festivities, I mopped up ankle deep pools of fresh human blood from our laboratory floor, as thoughts of what consequences lay in wait for us if we were ever to be caught grew steadily more grim and unavoidable, all the while, Luxx’s near total and complete disregard for such consequences proceeded to add entire Galaxies of increasing volatility to the already crumbled fault-lines of rationality and common sense… I was trapped aboard a sinking ship of her obsessions, pulling me into an Ocean of demise that was overflowing with my own poisoned curiosity’s, and it would be Veruka herself, who unwittingly sealed my fate with a kiss…. Run, Rabbit, Run… Because when you’re walking such a very fine tightrope of morality, whilst attempting to survive on a steady diet of endless hedonism, there is simply no time to slow down.. On that note, Veruka and I sat by the fireplace, drinking tea into the morning. Something I can’t shake about the look in the old bats eyes, embedded into my memory, will forever gnaw at me. I’ve seen that soul sucking glare before. For a second I was lost in the void of her pupils, the cry of the storm, and as I looked out from the old woman’s vacant stare, I actually was looking up at myself the moment blood poured from her every orifice. I was shocked, trembling, sweating, and whiter than a sheet. Looked as if I’d seen a ghost, a fucking Kodak moment... With every second, it seemed further in the past, until all I saw was my drug-devouring Morticia Addams, My Venomous Vixen…. Veruka was snuggling up next to me on the rug in front of her fireplace, and I feel her jab another shot of speed into my arm…. No warning…!?!??!!!!!! ….my vision trembles wildly…. Before I could even think, she is laughing and taking off her dress. Always an ice-cold intellectual machine; a vixen, brunette, green eyes and spectacles…. Even with a frozen heart like hers, I’d still be willing to bet my life that she could keep me warm in Hell…..