Thanks, Tom. The Shame Swords are basically demon-possessed, and corrupt anyone who carries them. So far he's been able to hold them off -- partly because the two swords don't like each other.
As for reference, the short answer is I used it for the good parts, not for the bad parts. Not using enough reference is probably my worst habit, but as a Ninja Mountain listener you already know that.
[link][link][link]I think that's basically it. The face was from a book, and the others are me. Yes, that's an Ethernet cable around my shoulders.