Allegory

Once upon a time, they called her Heartless. She denounced love as a chemical reaction, as meaningless as the water that flowed from her tear ducts. Absorbed in her own works of art, she neglected and dutifully avoided participating in the tangled game of romance. And yet, while her art was beautifully adorned with technical and artistic mastery, it was cold and statuesque, lacking the vitality and mortality of life.

When Catalyst surfaced into view, portfolio of his own art in hand, the reaction that had been slowly churning began to ignite. Awed by the earthen beauty of Catalyst's work - the very quality she lacked - she was swept into the illusion that Catalyst would become the muse, the breath of life that she needed. Inspired, she created a series of masterpieces, each one bubbling livelier than before. The caged flower began to unfurl, the spikes of green slowly exposing the pink flesh beneath.

But the Catalyst she had created in her mind was as lifeless and unattainable as the cold flawlessness that had defined her past. While her output increased dramatically, his diminshed softly until nothing was left, save the past. Catalyst did not care for art and certainly did not care for someone without a heart.

When her illusion shattered, the outpour of her work accelerated frantically, maddeningly. She sought to relieve the devastation and misery, but nothing she created could exhaust the draining burden she carried in -- what? Her heart? She sought for life and has found it in the ripened flesh of the blood-red flower. The excruciating agony Catalyst had left is far from cold and lifeless. The searing pain bleeds and the wound hurts to touch - a reminder that she is still alive.

And this is the story of Heart & Crossbones.