To live for the hope of something isn’t really living at all, and so, like a child putting away its toys and picking up a tool, he marched to Lyca’s bathroom, to shower off the stench of failure, soap up the death of hope, then wash away the ashes of his love for Daphne.

You can dress up greed, but you can’t stop the stench.

The smell of frustration cannot compete with the stench of non-creation