#legit his name is the NILE RIVER

[hoperaypegasus]

I just realized something about Nile’s eye makeup. 

His bey is obviously based on Horus, the Egyptian god. And everything about Nile, legit down to the fact he has the same name as the major river in Egypt, seems to be a reference to his heritage. However his makeup doesn’t really look like Horus’s symbol, the eye of Horus. It doesn’t look like the eye of Ra either in my opinion, it seems both stylized and different from both famous symbols. 

Instead, they are deliberately asymmetrical, as if they represent different things. These are supposed to show something. The kid version of me in my head who was obsessed with mythologies told me I was forgetting something that I definitely should know. So I dusted off my old books and did a bit of digging. And...

The deity Horus is a sky deity. And in early texts, his eyes were described as the sun and moon, before they were split up between Horus and Ra later on. More specifically, his right eye was the sun and his left was the moon.

The makeup under Nile’s right eye predominantly features a triangle, like a sun ray. And the makeup under his left features what looks to be a geometric crescent, like the moon.

...His makeup is a nod to the early translations of Horus’s eyes.

[raybyanothername]

Some Nile Freeman Headcanons

Her brother was 100% against her joining the Marines because he was afraid to lose her too. And now she has All the Guilt about fulfilling his greatest fear.

Her little bro is named Layne in my head as a nod to Kiki because it means roadway and rivers are the original roadways. Siblings should always have related name meanings!

She takes forever to warm up to Quynh because of the memories of her nightmares.

Once Quynh and Nile bond, they go full tag team to keep Andy from her usual self-destructive bullshit lifestyle choices.

And by bond, I mean they jump off a building together and Quynh does a flip.

Nile has Always been the big sister - first with her actually little brother and then with her unit. She'd get up in the middle of the night to check they were all breathing sleeping soundly.

That big sister experience has prepared her Not At All for becoming the baby of a millenia old found family with abandonment issues.

Nile took a detour on the way home from a mission one time and was woken up by Nicky and Joe breaking in to the apartment of the woman she picked up at a bar.

Quynh and Nile also bond as Team Lesbians by mocking Andy and Booker's taste in men.

Finding her in a woman's bed is how Jicky and Joe find out she's the current Team's Lesbian (pre-Quynh return) because they are oblivious and Nile is significantly more subtle then literally the entire rest of the team.

She points this out to them when they accuse her of hiding her sexuality.

"Not every one likes to tongue people at the breakfast table."

Andy and Quynh only barely came up for air when she said that. Nicky snorted apple juice out of his nose.

Nile doesn't like baklava.

The rest of the team is Offended by this.

Nicky brings her baklava from all over trying to find one she likes.

Nicky and Booker have a running bet about whether she will like it or puke. (After Quynh brings him back into the fold in a flourish of red robes and Fuck Offs.)

Nile loves s'mores.

The team is also Offended by this.

Booker cackles every time she makes a point to eat s'mores in front of Nicky.

Joe is in charge of teaching Nile to be subtle and less reckless.

This was the worst decision the team ever made. Crusades included.

Nile gets Joe to jump off a building with her within the first day.

Andy is not pleased and Nicky is not amused. Quynh gave them both high fives.

Layne, that stubborn adorable little brother of hers, tracks Nile down when Copley doesn't take a TikTok down quick enough.

It takes him three months, but he knocks on her door in Rio one day and Nile legit does not stop hugging him for at least an hour.

There's a tense week of negotiations before Layne becomes part of Team Not Immortal/Team Headache with Copley.

Layne cannot keep a secret from his mother.

Nile recieves a long voicemail informing her that she is expected for Friday Dinner for her formal nagging about dying in combat and NOT INFORMING HER MOTHER when she came back to life.

Mama Freeman is both sarcastic and sweet. She and Quynh hit it off like fireworks.

Which is to say, there was a car explosion and Andy got lectured by Two Total Moms about safety.

Basically, I am all for Team Immortal getting a few extra Freemans because it would make Nile smile more. Also, no one is ever straight in my headcanons. Maybe Layne? Idk, somebody's gotta be right?

[365days365movies]

February 21, 2021: The African Queen (Part 2)

Ah, Part 2! So, how are they doing at this point again?

RIGHT. Rapids. Well, let’s not navel-gaze, let’s see how they do! Check out the first part of the Recap right here to see how we got to this point!

Recap (2/2)

So they go over the rapids, which are basically just a short waterfall. It’s one hell of a ride, that’s for sure, and the two have some difficulty.

But even through that, they ride it out fine! More than fine, as they celebrate surviving the fort and the rapids. Rose lets out a kind of awkward “hip-hip hooray, and descends further into her adrenaline junkie fervor, saying the bullets were like mosquitoes. She, uh...she’s really getting into this whole thing, huh?

Charlie, meanwhile, is just overjoyed to still be alive, and embraces Rose in celebration. They have their own little twin rants about the occasion, and Charlie finishes it off with his own hip-hip-hooray! That’s followed by...

Well...OK then. Both of them seem taken aback by the kiss, and they brush it off as it nothing’s happened. But you can tell that things are different after this. And it seems like both of them are kind of into. Charlie, OK, I can sort of buy, but Rose has really started to experience a different side of life, and she’s embracing the SHIT out of it.

Doesn’t take them long to actually kiss in earnest, either, and they quickly succumb to their passions. Can’t imagine that they succumb completely, though, given Rose’s status as a woman of faith and all that. Either way, the two quickly legit fall in love. This is despite not knowing each other’s first names, goddamn. They finally start to refer to each other on a more personal basis, and they continue their journey down the river.

The two start to enjoy themselves, with Charlie imitating animals he sees down the river (the GIF up above is him imitating a hippo), and Rose laughs with a little snort that I will freely admit is adorable. But that’s cut juuuuuust a little short, when they hear and see what’s coming: more rapids.

And these are WAY worse than the other two, descending into a straight-up waterfall. Still, the boat makes it through, but not entirely undamaged this time. Propeller shaft is a little messed up, and supplies are limited. But Rosie, ever the optimistic innovator, manages to convince Charlie to give it a try, and to let her help.

And honestly...I’m digging their relationship. They’re EXTREMELY different people, but they’re also one of the best examples of opposites attracting that I’ve seen this month. And not only do they work together as a couple, but they LITERALLY work together to fix the boat! They weld a propeller together using makeshift bellows and a wooden fire on short, and the boat’s back to being river-worthy.

And the Ulanga River becomes the Bora, and elephants cavort along the shore...where the hell are they? Like, real talk, I’ve seen Nile crocodiles, elephants, hippos, babbons? Hold on, lemme look up these rivers while these two get assaulted by a massive swarm of mosquitoes, which looks unbearable.

OK, so considering that they’re in German East Africa, they’re probably going through Tanzania. And apparently, the river itself is a pretty common place to find all of those animals co-existing, as well as the largest population of Nile crocodiles in Africa, and a breeding ground for a bunch of bird species, like openbill storks and African skimmers...and can I take this cruise? Like, is there an option to go on a cruise through this area? ‘Cause I wanna. I REALLY wanna, goddamn. I would KILL to see this shit, I mean it. 

OK, well, moving on, the two make their way through a papyrus swamp, and they get badly stuck in the mud. They’re forced to make their way out of the reeds by getting out and literally towing it through the muck. Charlie does so, while Rose helps from above. 

But remember what I said about a lot of shit being in the water? Well, it’s time for leeches! Yay! Charlie seems to think that they’ve poisoned him, but that’s DEFINITELY not how leeches work. You wouldn’t know that, though, as Charlie starts to feel sick. Even so, they have to pull the boat through the muck onceagain, with Rose using a machete to clear the way.

But again, it doesn’t seem to matter, as a fever-stricken Charlie is convinced that the two of them are now permanently stuck in the mud, and that the two will die there. Rose seems to agree, and she prays to God once more, accepting their deaths, and asking for him to be merciful, despite their...weakness? That would seem to indicate that something may have been...consummated. Huh. Go figure.

But God’s not taking them yet, as the heavens produce not mercy, but torrential rain, which covers the giraffes, hippos, lions, and...I think those are puku? Common antelope species found around the river. But the rains also bring salvation, as the risen water level sweeps the boat out of the mud and onto the lake (which is fictional, by the way)!

But even now, after ALL OF THAT, it isn’t over yet, as the Königin Luise is on the horizon, about to spot them! They head back towards the reeds to hide, and narrowly escape. They decide to enact their torpedo plan at night, and spend the next few days making the torpedoes and cleaning the ship.

They argue about who’s going with the ship to take out the Luise, but they decide to both go, as they’d rather not risk losing each other if anything were to happen. They head out under cover of night and rain, and it’s then that something occurs to me...are they gonna make it out of this? Because swimming in a lake as big as this is no...oh, wait, never mind, the boat just sank. Shit.

Rose is lost, and Charlie’s found by the ship, who interrogate him under suspicion of being a spy for the British. He’s sentenced to death by hanging, immediately. And JUST as they do so, they find Rose and bring her to the ship. They embrace each other, but Rose is also interrogated by the “court” of sailors.

Rose, however, don’t give a FUCK, and just STRAIGHT-UP ADMITS THEIR PLAN! Holy shit, lady’s got balls. Charlie goes along with her, and the Captain (Peter Bull) is more intrigued than angry. But, y’know, not really gonna stop the whole “hanging” thing, now is it?

The two are lead onto the deck to be hanged. Meanwhile, the sunken The African Queen is still out there, submerged in the lake, with the torpedoes in tact. As they’re about to be hanged together, Charlie asks the ship’s captain to marry them, in ANOTHER ballsy move. Fuck me, I love this bullshit! Dumbest thing in the world, and yet I completely buy it!

The Captain, agreeing with me, actually does marry them as the nooses are tied around their necks. And that’s when Chekov’s boat is hit, and the whole thing goes down! HOLY FUCK!! Charlie takes the opportunity and throws off the nooses, and the two dive off the boat as the Königin Luise sinks entirely! The two, now married, swim off to the shore. And that’s it!

The African Queen! Another lovely film, with an ending that’s...abrupt as fuck, I’m gonna be honest with you. 

But I’ll get into that in the Review! See you there!

[someobscurereference]

Do you have anymore AU's you want to write? Is there any au you think you'd like to read but don't want to write yourself?

Oh heck yeah!! For both! I don’t think I’ve ever written a single canon-verse fic in my life? Like… maybe one, but I can’t even think of it right now if I have done it. (Granted, I’m counting both entirely new universes and canon-divergence fic as AUs, so maybe you’re using a different scale). But I most definitely have AUs I want to write still, even if they aren’t huge works and are still only like… barely 1K of severe sickfic or Trio’s Past Gets Revealed Early or something. Even if I don’t have an immediate fic planned and ready to write, I usually have something on the back burner in my mind, even if it’s something I’m unsure I’ll ever fully write. (I haven’t talked about the Modern Trio AU in quite a while now, but it legit haunts me daily and makes me laugh still.) Those ideas keep me going until a more immediate AU inspires me. So yes, always AUs! Forever!

(Unless you were hoping I’d name something specifically, in which case I just posted my most recent fic and besides one ongoing collab, I now don’t have a super concrete idea for my next fic, whoops. I’ve been haunted a bit by more Xanlow and Xander x Odin again for some reason, but it will probably pass and I’ll have to figure out something else unless I get a sudden prompt idea, since I’m a bit short on those all around atm. But we shall see.)

“Is there any au you think you’d like to read but don’t want to write yourself?” Every single one, lmao. Every fic I write is a very specific scenario I would like to see but because it only exists in my head and not already out there in the world somewhere, I’m the one who has to write it, haha. Don’t take that to mean writing isn’t fun though! It is and I love it a lot! But it’s always different when you read someone else’s fic and you get to be surprised, you know?

That said, because I was so general with that last answer, here are some specific ideas I’d want to read someone else write in no particular order and only because they spring to mind right now as I think on them: 

a Xander x Odin fic that reads legit because I’m still a sucker for rarepairs

a fic dealing with the Royals/Retainers and non-primary parent (or even non-parent but close aunt/uncle) bonding, 

a fic where Odin tells Ophelia (and others overhear) about Ylisse and his past through fairytales

(OT3) Fic dealing with Ophelia having the Brand and Nina/Forrest Do Not, as meaningfully or as inconsequential as the author deems (I can see it both ways)

another FE horror au tailored to my tastes (but nobody dies because I could never allow that, lmao)

more reincarnation AUs where the Trio doesn’t remember their past lives, but others do 

The Modern AU

The Modern AU B-Side that focuses on the parents instead of the Trio in another world where the Trio are treated like a legit missing person’s case and its suspenseful/a forever unsolved mystery (I have like 3 different scenarios for how this goes down already, lmao) until the Magic Reveal (maybe reveal in another fic, even though I technically already wrote that?)

Inuyasha-style FE Fic where instead of using the dried up well as a portal (or maybe still using it, I’m not picky) the Trio use bodies of water (pools, lakes, rivers, etc) and dive deep in order to get to Nohr/Valla/back home (bc water theme)

Every Fic Where The Trio MUST Reveal Their Identities/Get Reveal Not Of Their Own Volition, In Every Scenario Ever

AU where the Trio really do go with Corrin when Corrin first bails, even though it hurts real bad, and the aftermath of that decision (or even where the Trio are split because of it, whether willingly or not)

More fics that explore the connection human Anankos made with the Trio, whether that be magically or if it has dragon!Anankos acting weird/possessive/whatever

Fic that explores the full extent of having their appearances + new powers given

This means weird feelings about their different appearances now

Also means I want to know exactly what Anankos did. In-game power boost, yeah, but are the Trio like super soldiers now? What does that mean? Are they weirdly inhuman sometimes? I wanna see both the humorous version and the super serious version of this

While we’re on the subject, someone continue my Immortal Trio AU for me and get me that Nina Sees Odin Not Die When He Should Have And Has to Deal With That (i.e. The One Where Nina Trusts Herself More Than Anything Else In The World And She Should)

Or like… any of the kids seeing it happen, basically. 

A zombie AU like that zombie AU I wrote but Better

AU of that AU where everyone is slightly older and Niles (plus Leo? Depends on the circumstances but they’re both present in the plot, if not location) trek into zombie-infested Ylisse to find their online BF, Owain

Kinda Cinderella AU where the Trio show up sometimes and then just bail and seem to come and go of their own deadlines and are So Mysterious

That xxxHolic au I always say I’m gonna write

This list has gotten so long, whoops

Haha, anon, you got me to go on a bit of a list of just different plots I’ve been thinking about as of late. Again, this are in no order or some not even with a particular supreme need. They’re just ideas I’ve been thinking about lately so it would be convenient if they were in front of me at this very moment rather than me having to work for them, lol. I made this list, but the next fic you see from me probably won’t be any of these, haha. Maybe some day? Either way, thanks so much for your question! It had me thinking a lot again. I hope you don’t mind the length!

[kootenaygoon]

So,

Niles dipped his bare foot in the Slocan River, and gave it a playful splash.

It was early July 2016 and his shoulders were brutally sunburnt, so he had a voluminous white T-shirt draped off the back of his head. He hobbled along the shoreline in bare feet and board shorts, a blow-up mattress pinned under one armpit and a floating beer cooler weighing down his opposite hand. A cigarette dangled from his lips as he placed the floatie in the calm green water. At this particular bend of the river, where his sprawling property met the water, the current was almost nonexistent. The mattress floated in a lazy circle.

Niles had been making progress on his book project, and had transformed into an eager student over the past few months. He was working on a memoir that was slightly fictionalized for privacy. It was full of gleeful character assassination and vindictive gossip, and his prose wasn’t the strongest, but it was funny. That counts for a lot. As we worked through a series of drafts, I tried to tease out the details of how he constructed his manuscript. Which parts did he make up, and which parts were true? I saw names I recognized from the community, and read about events I knew actually happened, but there were other places where it seemed like he was just making shit up out of thin air.

“But you like this latest draft?” he asked, after we’d pushed off into the current and opened our first beers. The froth dripped into the water beneath us.

I nodded. “In general, you’ve taken out a bunch of that unnecessary exposition that I pointed out and you’re doing a much better job of scene-building, but I think there’s still a bunch of places where you haven’t given yourself permission to go all the way there. Not yet. Do you know what I mean?”

He nodded, smelling his fingers. “You mean I’m holding back.”

“Yes, but it’s not what you think. I’m not saying that you need to reveal more dark truths about the Kootenays. I’m not saying you need any more scenes with sex and drugs. I think you need to do some legit soul-searching, some introspection, and then work that stuff into the text. We have the story here, but we need to know how you feel about it, the emotional reality of what’s going on. It’s about being honest, being transparent to the reader.”

“Well, shit. But didn’t you say that I should market the story as fiction?”

I sighed. “No, what I said was you should be careful about how many names and details et cetera you change, because that takes you further and further away from being able to market your book as non-fiction honestly. That’s the point I was making there. Right now, though, what you need to focus on is finishing the manuscript. How to market it, and edit it, and everything else, that all comes later on in the process.”

He took a slug of beer, slapping his other hand in the water as we drifted between uninterrupted foliage on both sides of us. He’d lived here for multiple decades, raised his family here, and he was the picture of serenity as we floated along. I liked Niles, admired him in a lot of ways, though he’d made life choices that were different than mine. We’d had our little spats, mostly sorted now, but there was one lingering issue: his son Snapper. The kid’s rape trial was coming up in September, and I knew Niles had his sons’ back. What father wouldn’t? I had no doubt the kid was guilty, and I was hoping he would do time. This was an issue I was coming up against repeatedly in the Kootenays, people having a different spectrum of right and wrong than I was used to, and wondering how comfortable I was sharing space with people like that.

“A lot of changes at the Star,” Niles said. “Heard you guys lost Nesteroff?”

“Don’t remind me. I’m heartbroken about it. Greg got poached by the radio station and now he’s going to be the new Glenn Hicks.”

“No more Glenn? What’s going on with him?”

I shrugged. “I mean, Greg’s obviously going to be awesome over there and it’s a good move but I half-wonder if he was parachuting out of Black Press to get away from some of the toxic shit going on with the Carpenters.”

“No shit, really?”

“They just kept putting him in the middle of everything. And when they were coming after me, I think he’s the only umbrella that kept me safe.”

Niles lit a joint, then passed it to me. He’d heard my long-winded rambles about the Carpenters, had rubbed his hands together in child-like glee as I described the various office conflicts I’d engaged in. He’d known the Carpenters for decades, and had his own issues with them, so he was always happy to commiserate with my workplace misery. 

“And so what, they hired a new editor and a new publisher?”

I shook my head, took a toke. “They’re still sorting things out. We’ve got an interim editor for now. We’ve got a new publisher already, and he’s off to the races. They’ve got him in charge of like 10 papers already. Dude’s name is Aaron Layton.”

“And is he okay?”

I shrugged. “Seems like an empty suit to me, honestly. But if that means he’s going to leave us alone to do our thing in the newsroom, then I’m all for it. Like we’ve lost Greg, but we’ve still got a power trio holding down the fort. Ed and Kai are two of the most talented journalists I’ve ever worked with, and we’ve got a good thing going.”

Niles smiled, took the joint from me. “That’s good. This area deserves a good newspaper. There’s so many stories around here, and none of them get told. Not really. Like this Ryan Tapp thing.”

I sighed. “Don’t get me started. The guy is haunting me.”

“And who’s doing anything about it? The RCMP hasn’t said shit, right? Nobody’s investigating, nothing’s going to happen, and nobody’s going to know the truth of that story.”

I took a long haul off my beer. Birds skittered through the branches overhead, the sun glaring down sharp. The thing I’d been pondering lately was whether or not I really wanted to go forward with Whatever you’re on, I want some, the manuscript I’d been working on since my MFA at UBC. I was struggling to dredge up characters and storylines and fictional settings when right in front of me was an absolute fucking circus of Kootenay chaos I could use for content. I didn’t want to be a safe writer, writing safe stories about safe people. I wanted to write about the truth.

Niles passed me the joint, and I took another hit. I blinked up at the sky, swirling, and that’s when the idea crystallized.

“Dude,” I said, swivelling towards him. “I think I want to write a book about Ryan Tapp.”

The Kootenay Goon

[kootenaygoon]

So,

Niles was wearing a leopard print speedo and a Hugh Hefner robe that luxuriously flapped open, his blond Baywatch hair bobbing around his aviator sunglasses, as he strutted through the forest towards me. Paisley and I had stopped at his camp earlier that day, right when he was getting set up, and he’d been surrounded by his female employees. Apparently he was treating them to the festival, but I got the sense his generosity had more to do with wanting young groupies flitting around and less with actually doing a nice thing. I’d grown frustrated with him over the past few months, as his writing assignments were always late and sloppily typed up, leaving me to pore over manuscripts he clearly didn’t give a real shit about. That being said, I appreciated his worth as a source for the Star and genuinely enjoyed his company under specific circumstances. And when I spotted him coming through the darkness with his ladies in tow, it felt pre-ordained.

“Well, if it isn’t the Goon himself. Where’s your lovely little lady, has she gone to bed already?” Niles asked, throwing a heavy arm across my shoulders. “You guys looked dressed for the part today, all matchy matchy.”

“We went out for a bit, but I think it was a bit much for her.”

He grinned. “That’s what Shambhala is for. If you’re not overwhelmed, then you’re not doing it right. Right, girls?”

There were five women with Niles, but I only recognized two of them. One worked at Kootenay Co-op, and the other was Blayne. She was standing just behind the others, quiet, wearing a black bikini with a fluffy pink tutu. Curling ram horns jutted from her temples, and her eyes were slathered with pitch-black Mascara. We hadn’t spoken in over half a year, but she always seemed to be popping up new places. One night at the Thai restaurant she was our server, and I pretended not to know her. She did the same. But I still found myself wondering about her, worrying, thinking about that shithead who destroyed her living room. I wanted her to be safe. 

“We’re on our way to the Ryan Tapp tribute, did you hear about that? It’s supposed to start in 20 minutes.”

I had heard there were plans to commemorate Ryan, but hadn’t done the legwork to figure out the when and where. Since his death I’d been waiting on the official autopsy report, hoping to hear some new development, desperately wanting to take his story further. But the fact was, there just wasn’t time. Or resources. I was writing six to eight arts stories a week, as well as covering breaking news and writing columns. Where was I going to find time to dig into legit investigative journalism? The problem was, nobody else was doing it, as far as I could see. So say it was a murder, did that mean the killer was just going to get away with it? I knew this type of shit happened all over the world, all the time, but this is where I lived. 

This was my story.

“I don’t know if you know this, girls, but Will here was the first reporter on the scene when Ryan was killed. You did some really excellent work there, kid,” Niles said, his arm still around me while we walked. “We’ve never really had a journalist quite like you.”

I laughed. “You know what Jaime Lannister says, right?”

He raised his eyebrows.

“There are no men like me. Only me.”

Niles roared with laughter, throwing his body around as his robe swirled. The girls all took a step back as he staggered, his hand to his chest like he was having a heart attack. He wheezed and spat. Once he’d pulled himself together, he motioned me to come sit with him on a nearby stump. He rooted around in his inner pockets, then pulled out a tin Altoid’s can. He pulled back the top to reveal a little collection of white pills.

“Oh dude, I don’t really do drugs.”

He gave me a skeptical stare. “Never?”

“Well, I mean, I partied pretty hard in Thailand but I’m a pretty sheltered little suburban dude, you know? That shit scares me.”

“This is very clean stuff. For six hours the world will burn a little brighter, you’ll have some fun, and then there’s no hangover. Trust me.”

I shook my head, sighed. “Don’t tell Paisley.”

Shortly later I lost track of time. It seemed like I was moving forward and back, like I would pop into a moment for just a few seconds before suddenly being transported ten minutes into the past. I was on the dance floor with Niles and the girls, Blayne twirling in front of me like a ballerina, and then I was wandering down by the Salmo River calling out somebody’s name. There was a profoundly messy burrito that smeared down my bare stomach like vomit, there was a polite  dinosaur that nodded in my direction as he sauntered past, and there were colour formations that didn’t make sense to me. Was that gas they were shooting out over the audience? Where were the actual musicians? I felt like I was at summer camp again, squeezing my eyes shut while I worshipped Jesus. I wanted so badly to be a good Christian, to belong in the church, how did I find myself here? Why did I become this guy? Was I lost, or was this just what life was like, a series of confusing images we can’t make sense of? If I closed my eyes and prayed right now, what would happen? Anything?

Eventually I had to run away. I barreled through the crowd in my flip flops, out into the forest, then bush-wacked through the trees as if the lobster menace was in hot pursuit. I felt tears streaming down my face. Finally I broke out into a clearing, where a clump of tents were gathered at the lip of the river. They rustled in the wind. I knew this spot. Muscle Beach. 

A little bit further along I spotted a silhouette, a solitary guy looking out at the purple sky. His legs were dangling over the water, and he was lazy-strumming a guitar in his lap. I tried to recognize the song, but couldn’t.

“Hey man, do you mind if I sit here?” I asked. “Just needed to get away from the noise for a bit, you know?”

He smiled, but didn’t look in my direction. I settled in cross-legged beside him, and closed my eyes while he sung. He would stop and start, repeating lyrics multiple times, trying out different chords.

“How long’ve you been a musician?” I asked.

“Most of my life. I went to school at Selkirk College, and that’s how I ended up out here. Somehow I just knew this was the right place for me, you know? It’s got this special magic.”

“I’ve been here just over a year, and I’m starting to get a sense of that.”

“So is this your first Shambhala, then?”

“Yeah, I came with my partner Paisley. She couldn’t quite handle it.”

He grinned, laughing to himself about some memory that had nothing to do with me. “It’s not for everybody. What I’ve always found is that you get what you put into it, kind of like anything else in life. If you come to Shambhala with good vibes, that’s what you’ll get. But if you come to Shambhala with dark vibes, well, that’s a different story.”

Somehow I found myself trusting this stranger. He sounded a little morose at the moment, but it was clear he had some sort of special energy. It was too dark to properly make out his features, but I stared all the same. I could see that he had a cleft chin, and an Elvis-style pompadour. He leaned over his guitar and began to pluck away. As I watched, steam started to billow slowly from his clothes. I wondered if I was hallucinating, because it almost seemed like they were beginning to catch fire. I blinked a few times, feeling my stomach clench, and struggled to stand. There was something wrong here, something strange.

“You know, I didn’t catch your name,” I said, my voice trembling. “I’m Will.”

He turned, and gazed up at me. One entire half of this guy’s face was blackened and cracked, hissing. He looked exactly like the Hound from Game of Thrones. Flames began to lick around his shoulders as I realized who I’d been talking to all this time. I knew before he even said it.

“My name’s Ryan.”

The Kootenay Goon