considering some of the disturbance caused by the mercius/stille posts, we were just concerned about the graphic ideas related to ...basically kidnap/brainwashing/raep/necro. but in the spirit of most alchemical / occult texts, anything "awful" is all metaphor for transformation of the spirit.
also, it was very hard for me to write about a living person with putrefying flesh. if you've ever seen pix of users of the russian Krokodil drug (just don't...unless you want to see what its like to waste away with your arm bones/ribs exposed to the air while alive, leg bones just stuck out of gangrene legs, etc), or heard of phossy jaw/radium girls/medieval illuminators who licked their paintbrushes...
needless to say this is the stuff of nightmares for me, even if its all symbolic.