Aristocrats and royalty wear armour and carry swords. They buy and sell what they need and lie about the rest. Our hero was once on track to aristocracy but gave it up in a fit of conscience and a brush with mortality. Not so our villain. Like all established royalty, he wants to sit upon a throne of fear and desire.

"You know what keeps going through my head? Where's my sandwich?"

Gender and Apocalypse. Hear me out. Laurie's mom pushed her into it, right? And Jon, that guy was pushed around by pops so badly, he didn't even have an 'h'. Both waltz around like binary stars. But neither collapses. Instead, centre lost, they hurtle outwards, yin and yang, and then back together. Up until the end.

"I--I'm scared. I feel like there's big invisible things all around me."

The gloves removed hit the floor like lead, puncturing lungs, bleeding red, untold bodies left for dead. All this, despite the concussive rounds, remained unsaid, silent infrared exploding heads. The gloves removed hit the floor. The world changed forevermore.

"Roth, don't get sentimental on me, okay?"

Why should we not gamble, we at the bottom whose lives are without glory?

"Well, we have nothing to lose but our futures."

Behold the rattling swaying snake that chases and swerves along the spine, from shakra station to shakra station towards the eye, dropping passengers, like memories, at the end of the line, where darkness-light divine incinerates the lonely weeping mind.

"This shit's something else."

Oh God, don't let those harsh flames and sleepless nights touch me. Don't let them destroy my world. Don't let that grim, waiting horror come upon my life. Let all those ghosts live elsewhere, away from me. Let me have peace.

"New toys are coming!"

curious object in my hand,

woman/teenager gone,

bizarre instrument foreign land,

disappearing liaison;

far-off frozen sand, I demand

save me from this isle of man.

"Just shadows in the fog."

Incremental loss unnoticed. Ignored. Red slurpee disaster. Bedside love revealed. Dance club heat enjoyed. Man lost in hurt. Desire given wide berth.

"No amount of study or research can stop whatever it is that's destroying the sky...."

Bright bright James Dean daylight katana blade fight, slash flip throw all in plain sight, machine gun bursts, explosions galore, man oh man, do I want more.

"Listen to what I'm saying. With your skills, we could make some easy money."

Frank heaves the dusty, splintering crate from the flatbed of the truck. He breathes weakly, his body skinny as a chicken bone. Never been good at anything else, he thinks, sweating in the New York heat. No one who counts notices the daring daylight theft.

"I can see it!"