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Extracted from Scrivener backup: -40.bak2019-03-30T16-01

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Draft

To Tame,

Petit Mort

In The Throes

This is an account of the beginning, spurred by either divinity or magic. Clear to all of us now, but not so much when it ruined me back then.

My name, as you may know, is Waqi Harrak.

However, as you must know, this story isn’t really about me.

On November 29 th , y*HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://86A9037A-91AF-4D9D-8F52-DD61E1686FE3”ear of the Storm, something magical stirred awake in the clouds above Montreal. Meanwhile, something quite familiar did the same in my underwear. Here is how the meteorological phenomenon married itself to the sexual one, while consequently and completely fucking up my life:

Humanity couldn’t predict or rationalize the timing of weather patterns with any precision. However, I’m sure the earthly stirrings were the result of Alayne sitting down in my lap while I still had two inches of wine to work on. She tugged my glass sharply downwards by the stem, so that my fingers stretched tight around the bowl and then closed into a pinch once clear of the rim. A burp of wine flew out and baptized the queer hand gesture I was now making. She set the glass on the kitchen counter behind me, next to the dirty frying pan we’d get to in the morning. The smell in her hair sent my mind to a well explored orchard of ripe pears. She kept it bunned up during the daytime for work. It was easier to somersault that way. Mine must’ve smelled the same-but-staler. I’d used her shampoo since she’d moved in.

I showed Alayne my reddened fingers and feigned mock surprise. She apologized, cleaned my hand off with a few licks and kisses and then moved her mouth towards mine, to sculpt it into something more *HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://F2EAEF5C-E5E3-49FD-84C2-43125D48B564”agreeable. As we kissed I let me hands stray to her waist in the effort of her untucking her shirt from her yoga tights. Once I could feel her skin, I slid both hands up and down the strengths of her back before they met in prayer atop her tailbone. I tickled there with a renegade finger. She giggled enough for my now-remodelled face to break free.

”There’s work tomorrow,” I said.

Alayne scoffed. Then she got our lips as close as they could to each other without touching again.

”Let’s call in sick, and test how long we can keep twisted around each other,” she said.

She whispered directly into my mouth. The words tumbled around and stuck to the sides of my skull, bypassing my ears before they could weigh in.
\

“Mon cur, ” she said, before undoing the two shirt buttons closest to my belt.
\

My real name was reserved for fully clothed occasions.

” Mon cur, ” with more pain this time, as she pulled away from my hug while keeping one hand shackled around my wrist.

There was no comparably sexy way to pronounce Waqi in French. Whenever she tried I’d cringed a little, so we’d both settled on a pet name without ever really taking about it.

Alayne didn’t want to lose any momentum, as she led me down the hall by an arm. She she stepped she placed a heel down first before moving through the entire foot and lifting over with her toes. That was consistent. It also flexed her leg muscles all the way until they culminated in a bum flex. She knew what she was doing and she was dangerously good at it.

I imagine in the same moment, high up above in the clouds, the recipe was done brewing and the pot was due to spill over. I’ve since read books about clouds, nimbus, cirrus etc and how snowflakes propagate, so that gives me an idea of how it would happen, mechanically speaking. But the way it began that time had something… value added. Either it was divinity or magic, but there’s no doubt about it at time of writing. I know it to be true less from how things began from how things continued, and especially from how they ended.

I staggered a bit, drunk. She lost her gentle grip of me but kept walking.

I staggered again, knowing I wasn’t nearly drunk enough for such a lapse in motor skills. Something else was happening. That’s not what I surmised then, but close enough to how it felt in retrospect.

Alayne paused at the door to our bedroom, gave a look back, and lifted her shirt over her head as she walked inside.

I was enticed by her, for very the last time in my life.

My stomach felt like someone had just put a coin in the arcade machine. I was going to be sick. I walked past the ajar bedroom door and caught Alayne mid-undress.

In my mind, an arcade machine flickered into being, with the decals above the screen reading Soul Fighter. The unseen players selected their characters and were transported to an raucous Maissoneuve arcade on a Saturday midnight. Neon-suited party goers stood in the 2D background behind both fighters as their starting animations looped a couple of times. To the left, Casanova, a velvet-suited pimp with a rose held between his teeth and cupid’s arrow cufflinks. On the right, Everest, clad in mountaineer gear with a permanently frosty exhale.

”I’ll be right with you,” I said, with recently drunk wine summoning rewinding it’s course up into the back of my throat.

”FIGHT!” yelled the video game monologue, reading off of what was written in radical font overhead. Casanova started out by throwing three Cupid’s arrows from distance for the effect of 3 HP damage. He connected twice before Everest had a line on how best to block. The third one hid is crossed icepicks and disintegrated into frozen shards.

I kept the dragon at bay long enough to get into the bathroom next door. The kicks were getting strong enough to undo another couple of buttons on his shirt. I flicked the air vent on and turns both and cold knobs to full pour in an attempt to hide the noise of the dragon I was about to summon.

At the beginning of Round 2, Everest cast a wrangling net overhead of Casanova and glued him in place for a moment. Next came a charge and a Killer Combo (TM) to the face.

Once ready I hunched over the toilet and struck *HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://B353C435-3F0C-4416-A0F2-E9844C82B5EF”three fingers done my throat. The wine came out alone. I hadn’t eaten since lunch with Sebastian. The red covered the inside of the bowl and congealed on my moustache too.

The magic had come upon me, and was laughing as it did. Making it look like I was convulsing up my bloody insides.

With Casanova dazed and a sliver of red blinking rapidly in the left health bar overhead, Everest cocked back before unleashing Kilimanjaro (his finisher), a simple uppercut punch at the end of a glowing blue fist that resulted in Casanova rising high in a pillar of growing ice until he went up past the frame of the arcade machine.

“WINNER!” said the machine, in the last I ever heard of it.

In a bonus cutscene, the nearly dead body of Casanova rises even higher in a tunnel of darkness, until a bright light at the top blinds the screen.

On cue my mouth was compulsed open and the heaviest hurrah of semi-digested wine torrented out.

Unbeknownst to me, the magical micro-organ that regulated my libido has just come up out of my mouth and been flushed down towards the Jean-R. Marcotte water treatment station.

In the mirror, my usually coy expression was ink-blotched by one more akin to one of Shaitan’s minions. Any illusion has been painted over to show only my sin. In the weeks after I would be sure it was my original sin exorcised out to leave a purer vessel. In the months after, I was less sure, to say the least.

I took the hand towel off the rack to wipe away the lipstick. A few gargles and mouthwash later and I was ready to get back to what had to be done.

I’d lost my erection somewhere along the way.


CONVENTIONAL ATTRACTIVE PLACHOLDER:

She had a dimple in an unconventional spot - right at the top of her cheek below her eyelid. What does it look like?

We’d had our first joint dentist appointment the week prior and I’d been chastised gaping next to the Mercedes.
\

*HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://20F19205-58C7-493E-86DB-6DE6B98170E9”No, No. The body of an acrobat. Forearms that could lift a smaller man, thighs that could grip a pole. She is more musclely than him an he likes it. She is like that chick we saw at Comedy Bar on a date. Weightlifter dating a normal guy. “When people saw us they would say she could eat me and I’d tell them she liked to top me with a pistachio cream first.

Enter Magic

I walked into the bedroom a different man, not knowing which way in particular yet. I remember a visceral dread for having to penetrate Alayne.

*HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://C97D83D5-6068-4238-9265-D8DF11EEE5A6”She was already spread eagle on top of the worn out comforter she’d moved in with. We did all our sexing on the top side and then slept underneath it, to keep sanitary. I once suggested we lay a couple of towels down to better contain their stickiness. Alayne said it felt like playing sexy Twister, but not in a fun way. The current game was the waiting one, standing over her, with my belt still skewered shut through the slimmest punch hole available. Running my tongue around the insides of my cheeks, I couldn’t taste the wine anymore.

“Oh, you want to watch me?” she said.

No, I didn’t. I was sober now.

Yet Alayne had her eyes closed and I didn’t voice any demur, so she licked her three playing fingers shiny and instrumented for my audience. Her choir chimed in on the cue of my belt buckle finally slapping the hardwood. I stepped out of my pant puddle and leaned forward onto the edge of the bed. One of her feet rocketted upwards, so that the tip of her biggest toe could graze back and forth along the grain of my arm hair. From this distance I could focus my gaze past the performance, to the artist. She truly was une ange sans faille . She deserved to be fulfilled.

Damn me.

I kept on her face and hoped everything below that latitude would shift into place without mind paid. The first thrust jutted into her pelvic bone, my diffidence saving me from injury. We both let out sighs, mine of clumsy and hers of tease. Alayne slipped a hand between the chasm made of our chests, serpenting down until she took caring hold of me. She righted my trajectory and pulled me inwards.

Getting my dick dirty was the worst part. Afterwards, he could stomach the motions, resigning himself to already being soiled. Thinking about it made him shiver. She felt it, and started rubbing her hands on his back, never long enough to actually warm the skin anywhere in particular. She was always sweet with him.


NEW

I thought to all the times we’d done it right before. I though to all the other women I’d served well. I was conditioned for this. This was my element. This was what the clothes, the conversation and the homemade stir-frys earned me. This was what victory looked like.

Somewhere inside that resonates, but in an ever-dulling hum. Some part of me had already packed it’s bags and left the front door to walk towards the bus station. I was calling to it, and it was answering back over it’s shoulder, ever fainter and it kept walking away.

I was about to get enough in edgewise to stir up my cock into being semi-stiff. That would have to do.

I remembered to look back down to Alayne and make some lusty eyes to check in with her. My thoughts had almost given me up. I diverted to kissing her. Her lips, cheeks and then neck. She had felt me awaken enough to slip my way into her.

I kept our lips locked as she grasped my hindside to maestro our rhythm. She insisted on quickening. I served.

I served until his body died un petit mort one final time.

Post-Mortem

Lying beside her, Waqi smiled into her sideways gaze, relieved to have a hands length between their bodies.

”How do you feel?” she said.

”Good,” he said.

She fell asleep first like always. Waqi lay awake, disturbed. How many times could he die before he died for real? It would never stop, unless he did something. Rather, until he stepped aside. How would that go down? He wanted her here, too. That’s what made it absolutely impossible.
\

Think think think. Health and mind first. Your heart will still pump blood broken.

He decided. He could never bear to do all of that, ever again.

Outside the window it had started snowing in Montréal, and it would never stop.



I couldn’t sleep. I had a lot of evaluation to do. What has caused me to have such an about face pertaining to knocking boots? Why did something primal, essential, now make me feel like running a spike through my urethra? The thought didn’t make me flinch anymore.

I took a hand and cupped my scrotum. No lumps, just two testicles and a few uncut public hairs. The next step was to grip my shaft and give it a firm squeeze. There was no stiffness in response, just limp muscle reacting as the flesh on my arm would. I quickly looked over to make sure that Alayne was still asleep and turned to face the wall. How crazy would that look, jerking off to finish myself off?

The old me (of an hour ago, no more) would have worried it would be an insult to her attrativeness. The New Waqi was worried it would entice her to try and make love again. It was that pang of fear that made it resolute in my mind.

I never wanted to have sex again.

But I must confess, the greater story here isn’t really about me, just told through me. I end up being the most fitting of those able.

In that same later that we’ll get to, we will mark this as the date of the Storm, and use it to finally snatch the calendar away from the Gregorians. It will take the Quebec winter to accomplish what the French revolutionaries had attempted 3 centuries prior.
\

Camarades, bien faits.

Man About Town

Getting Ready

The Japanese call it “the devil’s laugh.” That feeling of clarity you get right after you cum. All the lust and carnal desire melts away and you’re left feeling supremely rational, and thinking about something mundane like how long it’s been since the compost truck came before you’ve even exited your sexual partner. You may also think about what silly creatures we are, letting all manners of important things become second to this primal wiring to fornicate, even to our detriment sometimes.

Then about 20 minutes later, your libido’s got enough ju-ju to awaken once more, and that enlightened, calculating, rational you get’s a bag put over it’s head and gets contorted into a back closet of your mind.

I had that feeling the last time I came with Alayne, but it never went away. I had it the next morning when I awoke, still as pervasive then as it had been during the climactic moment. I still feel it at time of writing, but as with all bodily functions that become consistent and autonomous, I have trouble recalling how it felt when this clarity of thought wasn’t around.

I left the bed before Alayne woke the next morning. She slept sound, which helped, since her work days started and ended hours later than mine. After I grabbed my shirt and pants out of our shared closet, I wouldn’t see her again until dinner time. Getting ready alone was a meditation I had begun to cherish, even before the limp cock business. I never let women never stick around this long in the old days.

My apartment was still filled with artefacts from the playboy era. A cocktail bar set out on an antique table, with twisty toothpicks and cinnamon-maraschino cherries provisioned in the cupboard below. An erotic board game hiding in plain sight on the bookcase, suggesting itself to the browser. There was the mini-picnic table stationed out on the third story balcony, for the dinner date perpetually promising itself. I kept two base heaters, one at the foot of each of the wooden chairs. Them, along with the parasol overhead so it was habitable any day of the year when the wind blew below 15 knots.

Alayne would head outside and fire up one of the base heaters on weekend mornings, before putting an ankle on the railing to stretch. It may have finally gotten too cold for that, the drifting snow had surely dropped the temperature another five degrees. It was getting too cold for a lot of things. Montrealers in every borough were scurrying to find their cuddle buddy for the winter months, no doubt. I had that base covered for the duration now.

The night’s sleep hadn’t changed my resolution on the sex thing. It was a relief to shower and get the dried up slime off of my skin. The dyer tumbled, warming my towel in the meantime. I stepped out baptized in the steam of celibacy. I drew my daily heart on the bathroom mirror for her, and inspected my shave in the cleaned finger width alone.

I think I mentioned being a playboy, but any women reading would probably classify me under the more modern colloquialism of fuckboy.



There were artefacts around the living room from my childhood. It was true - the anecdote about rooms being a diorama of the mind. Except things weren’t on display in there. It wasn’t a bedroom as usually imagined. It was a walk-in closet in a McMansion. It was all in drawers with faulty rollers that let things slip out when the right earthquake *HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://A29CEDBF-666F-41F0-A24F-C0B1F2BEF433”rolled through.
\

Depanneur

Snow had settled spotty on the pavement by the time I stepped out of the balcony, onto the fire escape. He stepped down past the Drapeaus,’ with their fleur de lille hanging limp on its flagpole, a reinforcement of white helping to crowd out the blue. Mr. Papineau’s balconies on the way down the spiral fire escape of the triplex. Mr. Papineau still had his barbecue chained up around the third step up from the street, owing to not not having a fence around his back porch. Waqi had twisted his ankle on the chain last August, one night while drunk.

I hopped over the bear trap pried open for me. M. Drapeau had grown hip to me using the back way to come and go.

Owing to it being a quarter past 6 on the first snowfall of the season, I had a unique consumption opportunity I had to exploit. Montreal was a beer city, with many microbreweries filling back alleys and countryside chalets. A tradition with a dotted line back the days parched prohibition era Americans would head north to the sin city for an imbibement. Through the summers the parks are littered with locals and tourists with beer and mixed nuts. But with the snow, beer season was definitively over. It was now ripe time for a glass of wine by the fire.

Montreal was a wine city. The guzzlers of the summer suddenly became cultured swillers once they’d thrown on a peacoat and ear-muffs. That meant depanneurs, the convenience stores of Montreal, but with a bit more and less refinement simultaneosly, would either bother destocking and restocking their booze shelves, or have a fire sale on ales. Waqi’s local was on the other side of rue Notre Dame from his place. So close that he could get by scooting across for some milk and eggs in his bathrobe at all times of year.

It was called Incroyable Dep and Cafe (formerly Incroyable Dep), run by Simms, a gender bending crossdresser that the dopeboys used to hassle until he bought a shotgun and popped it off last St Jean Baptiste Day. Simms had recently turned a portion of their store a sit-down cafe with drip coffee, espresso and fresh pastries trucked in daily from Romano Bros. across town. I wanted in to the normal greeting “Ah, le pied-blanc. I expected you a few snowflakes ago”

They called french people born in the mahgreb pied-noirs. I was a Moroccan trying his best to be white, so Simms thought apt to switch it.

”Absolutement."

"I can get a better deal."

"Can you wait? Let me into the coldroom so I can make a value pack and unburden you."

"What robbery. I’m sure you will only pick the best of the best.”

Simms beckoned for me to pass him into the cold room. The plastic flaps were scuffed from past traffic. I walked past the old standbys and big brands and dollar beers to stand at attention below the sign that read micros,’ written in permanent marker and fixed with copious masking tape. An open treasure chest. I picked up a bottle. The label read Dionyce. On the back it boasted of containing hints of citrus and espresso. I put it back down.

Other events to foreshadow: cold beer, psychedelic beer, infidelity beer, italian beer, biker, circus, art, communist, culinary.

I pick out a dozen. Simms calls in from the register.

“The communists came by asking for more money."

"They’re anarchists."

"Cute nicknames to hide their true lineage. Like they called you Wallace (?) in English class."

"I tell you too much know what an asshole you are. Vivek and his lot can’t bother BLANK, so they bother you.”

Simms ponders.

”That doesn’t provide me any assurance."

"I’m sorry but…"

"My guns provide that.

I came out of the back with two armfuls of bottles.

“Deliver these around 6 tomorrow evening. We’ve got a date tonight.‘

”Why have all these mating dances if you’re already doing the mating?”

I ignore him.

“And pour this one into a coffee cup. Large, with extra foam.”

When he’s done I took a sip and stopped at the door.

”What do you think makes a man? I need an alternateive perspective."

"Stupid Q. A backbone and a cock.”

Commute

As I exit the dep, I skip across until I get to the park. I see the trees marked for death. I look back at my balcony and give the reader a good description of the apartment complex. It is 3 stories tall and 4 doors wide. The is an interior courtyard that is shared public space to residents only (no outside pedestrians). He also mentions how he usually keeps 5 loonies (Canadian slang) on him for the mornings so he can drop love to all the homeless. He sees a bunch on his commute with varying personalities. Most are familiar (incl. Violin guy), but one is new (hitchhiker). There is a difference between the St. Henri bum and the downtown bums. He also describes St. HENRI.

What to emphasize:\

• Industrial past, anglo now vs franc before, hipsters, gentrification, architecture, landmarks, fictional park, silos, canal, church with one spire removed,
  
  Then Waqi sees the guy at the metro. He doesn’t speak. No one knows his name. There are mentions of him daily on the neighbourhood message board. This sends Waqi on his trip into fable land.
  
  We have to have enough words from his life to use in the story. This is imp. We need to have a solid understand of his character voice to use before we write this scene.
  
  Words: fuckboy, hapnin, down for that.
  
  Not too many though.
  
  Later, I saw a gypsy bum who begs on Courcelle.
  
  “I have something for you. Don’t spill it. It’s beer."
  
  "Thank you. You will be blessed today.” - This is ironic as his day gets worse at work, but gets better when he meets the Brazilians, then worse when he reveals to his gf.
  
  The bums he know on the way to work he has given them each nicknames of different Greek philsophers. This chapter will be my ode to philosophy, since he is reflecting on what happened to him the night before, and if he can still call himself the same man he always has. Let’s not beat around the bush. Let’s set the key internal tension right off the bat. We can’t find all this out from subtext, so let’s have a philosophy chapter to show our tits off the bat.
  
  Philosophers to use: The Dep owner (what do we call him? He has a philosopher nickname that the whole hood calls him and it sticks with his character for the remainder of the novel.) Name him after that shit talking troll who lived during the time of Alexander.
  
  Someone can be a stoic. Someone can Alain de Boutoin. Plato. Socrates. Rousseau. Hobbes - for the craziest guy. Mozart - for the musician.
  
  
  
  
  
  Across from me sat a school-aged girl. Her sweater handily spelled out that it was a University she was paying tuition to, and my gaze was fine.
  
  
  
  
  Tchaicovsky played on and I let my mind dance. I was sitting in a Panther perch in October with the spires of Moscow poking out past the browning tree line in my periscope. I was adrift with Shackleton at 40 below with rot setting in on my left leg. Then, I was even further *HYPERLINK “scrivcmt://89A7A43A-D812-45E1-84DD-A02CC481B4C1”away.

Fable 1

I was in Myosh, a walled city planted where the bendy banks of the river Lycene spread the farthest apart. I was in the back of the midwife’s chamber as Ibn Kellas was born.

His mother knew she wouldn’t be able to hold not, not even for a moment. She had a job to do. She was less his mother than the Matriarch of the Rearing Temple would be. The Matriarch was less her mother than a rotund, gowned bird sitting on the highest perch onlooking Ibn’s nurturing to be a Helper. She only needed to step in when he offended a rule grievous enough to warrant consideration for killing, and when it was time to wash him up for his auction.

Ibn was proud and gloating to the other boys the day the guards told him he was to be up for auction that afternoon. The nobles seldom awoke early enough for a morning formality to be feasible.

Fifth Finger

“Winter’s here,” Sebastian said.
\

Sebastian

“This time of year is the end of things. May as well be the end of me too,” Sebastian said.

”The fuck…?” Waqi said.

”I’ve been having suicidal thoughts lately,” Sebastian said.

”You should get help,” Waqi said.

”That’s kind of the point of this. I’m asking you for help,” Sebastian said.

”No, I mean like Kid’s Help Phone, but for adults,” Waqi said.

”You think I haven’t spoken to people about it before? I need a diferent kind of advice, on a… related issue. I think you could help me with it, and then maybe these feelings will go away."

"Well fuck, tell me what it is,” Waqi said.

”Later man. Let’s grab some drinks,” Sebastiain said.

”Drinks?” Waqi said.

”Mmhm,” Sebastian said.

”Alright, Sunday evening, not too late,” Waqi said.

Sebastian feigned to think for a second.

”Yeah, that won’t be too late,” he said.

Then he laughed while Waqi stared, worried.

Date Night

Rehearsal

Reading Ibn Battuta on the subway ride to meet Alayne (Even though I wasn’t a practising Muslim anymore, I still held pride for Islamic history, mostly as a bulwark against one of the main lines of thought of white racists. A great legacy of science, arithmetic, genocide and forced conversion that gave any knights and castles civilization a run for it’s money.)

Jazz Bar

L’escalier was a vegan jazz cafe that only served their tea with soy milk. It was hip, bohemian and 5 dollars for a pint of Boreal. Therefore, business was frequent and Friday nights were busy and featured Mike Gauthier as part of the best free jazz trio in the city. Alayne and I had visited more times than we could readily recall. It was the place to find the real hipsters, not the Fisher Price ones.

Night Tour

Confession

Alayne reached under my belt. It was still tied and she didn’t have a problem reaching under it for my drawers. It was time for a new one.

Long story short: Use the literary device of a knot to describe the feeling of dread and discomfort he has.

The knot gulped it’s way up his throat. The next breath would convulse him to vomit it out.

”I can’t,” I said.

”What’s wrong?” she said.

”I can’t. I can’t” I said, like that would be enough.


”My body’s changed.

”I understand that your body is changing…"

"Not changing. Changed. It already happened. In an instant. Sometime last night during sex,” I said.

”Did I do something wrong?"

"I don’t think that’s it. I mean, I can’t even begin to understand it. Stepping outside of myself for a second, even if I wasn’t attracted to you, I would be attracted to other women. Today on the metro, at work - nothing. I’ve been working through this in my mind, like some shitty Ikea furniture that won’t fit right. It still doesn’t fit, but it used to, of course."

"Do you still love me?"

"Yes, I do. I don’t doubt that for a second. I love you deeply and fully and only,"

"Then we’ll work this out. Sex isn’t everything,” she said.



I arranged some freshly washed sheets and fell asleep on the guest bed.

Avoidance

Tangier

That night I dreamt I was twelve years old again, and back in Tangier.



My grandmother used to tell me that the sun shined on Europe from our city. The way it lingered overhead on July noons made it hard to rebutt her.



I used to spy tourists and pop out. Literally pop out; of food carts, textile shops and sewage alleys to greet them.

G’day Sir

Buen Dia Jefe

Bonjour Madame

Konnichiwa San

Even the ordinary ones wants to be treated like a noble once referred to as such.

I used to take them to shop owner and discuss in Arabic what was a good enough swindle for the owner to afford new Nikes for their son, and still make me look like I was a deal wringer.

It was harder with the rich Egyptians and Saudis because they knew the language, but also knew the game. For those Arabs I had to flip the script that I would take them to the best shops and show them the goods that Americans and Parisians all bought. I could attest for my clientele with some 35mm prints I’d humbly collected from an elderly German couple, happy to flaunt their Haji-for-rent back in Schleiswig-Holstein.

It wasn’t often that younger women made their way to Morrocco in those days. Now it is de rigeur for University students to come here for a brushstroke of culture what what little gluttony they can scaveange. Back then the shouks were the domain of locals and elder white tourists, who already had grandkids and thus their lives were complete enough for their to be no great tragedy if they die in a foreign Arab land.


The family packed up and left the last week of July. I spent the rest of the summer taking care of fat Egyptians and their fattening Egyptian boys.


Long story short: He meets a western couple, one of the few who brought their children along with them in those days. He is attracted to the girl. The family invites him to be their guide as they go live in a house on the coast. He and the girl play a board game she brought along. The time that their gazes linger on each, she reaches in to bite his nose and run away.

Anarchy

It was about time to visit the Alumni Association of Anarchists.


It was time to visit the McGill Urban Planning Alumni Society. They had set up office in a vacant lot on St. Ambrosia overgrown with vines and ragweed. It was their protest against the government allowing them to build things whereever they wanted to. Their movement was “Permit Free Montreal.” It was an utterly idiotic proposition, but that was probably when the mind went during the most pathetic and curable of illnesses: unemployment.

Waqi pulls the white sock out of his pocket and waves it around as a mock sign of surrender.

Waqi makes a big show out of his visit to highlight the absurdity of the squatters. He feels like he is losing control of his own life, so he shows up to a forum when he can be the superior person again.

”May I approach the throne?”

Sister

Chess Game

“How long have you felt like this?"

"I used to hate women for not liking me. Then it turned into me not liking myself. Now it’s at the point of suicide."

"The only thing that will stop me from killing myself is having sex. I don’t see the point in a man living life without that being a thing he has going on.”

If I believed in God back then I would have been sure he was laughing at me. Don’t get it twisted, I don’t believe in God now either.

”OK, we can help you with this."

"No, you can help me with this."

"I’m willing to learn. I’m willing to change. I’m willing to be ruthless."

"First mistake. There’s nothing ruthless about this. You’re a caring person who does good with most of his life. This aspect is nothing different."

"First lesson, nothing can be turned into anything as simple and unequivocal as that bullshit advice you’ve internalized. This world is full of subtlety, complexity and mystery. Romance is no different."

"I’m not trying to fuck with romance yet,"

"Then stick to hookers,"

"Nah I’m trying to fuck real girls."

"What’s with you kids and thinking romance is something to be allergic too. I’m not telling you to fall in love, just to open up your heart a bit. Not caring one bit about the women you’re pursuing is psychotic and I won’t enable it."

"Here’s where I think you’ve strayed the farthest. Not caring about how you think of women and resulted in you not caring what women think of you. You need to away of your prey’ as you may call them, and by not appealing to their senses you are invisible to them."

"It’s not going to be easy. All your interactions with the opposite sex have been awkward your whole life. It will take a lot of re-socialization to begin to make you into a man who is sexually desirable to a percentage of the female population that will matter. It will be hard and may not be successful, but I’m willing to give it a reasonable amount of my time. Ultimately the hardest work will fall upon you, as it should. You can choose to go down this hard road with no guarantee of success, or you can kill yourself and be sure you will never again know how a vagina feels wrapped around your penis."

"I didn’t tell you out of any small hope. I know you are a compassionate man and would choose to help. I’m willing to give it a try of course. Just know that if I do decide to eventually kill myself, it will not be a demonstration of your inability of save me, but rather of my own inescapable ineptitude.

We shook hands.



While having chess with Sebastian, he also mentions that their boss in in the pocket of the mob, which is the reason his idea got kaiboshed.

Move list of Chess Game. SEB IS BLACK. WAQI IS WHITE.
\

1. Seb opens with Kings pawn. Stakes a claim in the centre and opens up diagonals for Queen and bishop.\
2. Waqi opens with Kings pawn.\
3. They make the most rational moves and end up in the Ruy Lopez. Waqi comments on it.\
4. Waqi plays the Morphy defense.\
5. Then have Seb play a subtle move and create a weakness.\
6. Then have Waqi comment that if you’re playing with a less experienced player, the key is to keep complicating the position until your opponent can’t calculate all the possibilities and they will inevitably blunder.\
7. Have Waqi exploit that weakness and take a couple of pieces off the board.\
8. Then have Waqi comment that the most prudent way to play from this point would be to keep exchanging peie

The Bar

Mr. Drapeau throws things at him when he stumbles home drunk.

Coming Home

Kill,

Reconcilliation

Work Outing

I dragged my feet getting ready because I knew Alayne had to run ahead and help the clowns set up in the park. When I got there myself she was holding onto a slackline while Gaston was climbing a lamppost in the effort of installing the second end of an invitational banner. I walked up to her because, who else? She leaned back for a kiss while still holding dutifully to the slackline. It was an innocent behaviour belonging to the blissful period of a week ago. I said nothing. Neither did she. Her hands were busy at least. I was looking like an idle idiot. She spoke hushed, as if embarrassed I hadn’t figured out a heist was afoot.

“I still love you,” she said, like it was a secret.

”We can make this work. There are other ways to be close to each other. This doesn’t have to be over.”

She said the last sentence hesitantly and seemed to hope something, like these words would never have to be uttered. I responded “I didn’t have any plans of going anywhere.” I said with confidence I didn’t have a moment prior. The banner was now hung on both sides and Gaston came repelling down, using his thighs as slowing clamps on the lamp pole. The banner read “Bienvenue clowns et eccentriques. Be at ease.”

Now free of her duty, Alayne lead Waqi over to the picnic tables, covered in homemade pastries designed to look like things they didn’t taste like. There were muffins with butter chicken filling and roast chickens with jelly bean filling. The clowns were of the Sartre school of absurdity. Alayne and I took a table near the head of the park. As the chief coordinator, it was always remarked upon if we ever selected to sit in the back and peer during a gathering, The public gaze wasn’t ideal if we were to keep talking of what was pertinent. Therefore, we kept up the hushed voices and half-sentences of our lovers’ espionage.

”Is there any reason we can’t be together without sex?"

"I don’t see why not.” (With some hesitation from Alayne)

“OK good.”

The Alayne blasts out: “I mean, we can always try different “things.” "

"You mean like, positions?"

"No, I don’t think that’s gonna fly with you. I mean, you seem pretty sure about that. I meant… we can still be… intimate, without sex."

"Oh yeah, I guess that may be true.”

Alayne is a little flared now: “You guess?! Are you going to try at this?"

"Of course, I just don’t know what works anymore."

"Your arms seem to be holding up well. Can you still hold me?"

"Yeah you’re right. Sorry."

"Then hug me.”

They hug. To all the red-nosed, cake-faced passers by, nothing seemed awry.

First Time

Fellatio

Phone Calls

Playboy

Moving Forward

Gym/Fable 2

Waqi runs into his boss

Sauna

Hitch

Silo/Hallucination

Instead of having a fable flashback here, let it instead be a brief hallucination in a different world, related to the main story (make it futuristic, or at least a different aesthetic than the fable land.)

The New Order

Ruins/Lunch with Dad

Cuddling

Does this scene incorporate the mutual masturbation one?

All I could think of is how those three fingers had been down my own chasm a week prior, trying to summon a newcomer demon.

Exodus

Getting Fired

Persona Non Grata

Daddy came home with lipstick on his shirt collars.

A New Hope

Bar Rally

Setting Up

Moving to Montreal

I was no longer exotic. I was another one of the Tunisian hommes who wore silver chains and smelled like sweat on the express bus.

Open Mic/Shakedown

Trouble in Paradise

Robbery/Fable 3

Resto/Proposal

Affair

Dissertation

Having the dissertation here is timely as Waqi has just witnessed the affair.

To speak of Alayne as anything other than my lover would be a kindness that I haven’t gotten around to yet, but that she wholly deserves. Her childhood was starkly different from my own. While I was hustling on behalf of the more daring Amish on Rumshpringa, she was enrolled at one of the choice Catholic schools of East Montreal.

Her heart cried when she saw the fly-faced Ethiopian on WorldVision. She wanted to do something about it, so she sketched his visage in between the act breaks of episodes of Frasier and took the finished portrait and an empty pickle jar and set up anti-shop in the hallway outside Sra Smitas’ spanish classroom.

Or Run?

Society Falls Apart

Refugees

Sebastian Attacks

The Break-Up

Running Away

Excursion

Caveman

He is with company in a basement apartment when the window breaks and the snow caves in. He must escape the snow. His companion dies. This is the first death in the story, and it comes as a shock to the reader.

Submerged

This chapter will be tough to write, as it is just Waqi stuck in a pile of snow for a long period of time. He gets submerged and tries to find his new friend to no avail. Then he struggles in the snow to free himself. He doesn’t reflect too much at the beginning, rather just trying to survive. He realises that he doesn’t want to die. H wants to go on and see how the last days of the world will go on. This is when he has the realisation that the world is ending. He is struck by it, and considers giving in, but instead decides to fight.



Sleeping buried in snow is more comfortable than you’d think. The insulation that powder snow packed 20 feet above your head provides is substantial.

It was only the sudden fear of running out of fresh air in my cocoon that finally threw me into a panic.\

City Hall

He comes upon City Hall in an epic scene and finds it in ruin.

Caravan

They’d manage to get a few cars to ride on top of the ever-packening snow floor. Someone had had the idea to make tank treads out of PVC and industrial strength fasteners. It resulted in a caravan of a dozen vehicles able to traverse a kilometre a day. In the new world that was light speed. I was surprised this was only the first time I’d begun to feel like Kevin Costner in Waterworld.

Alayne Presents…

Invasion

Title: Cirque Eloize and the St Henri Cycle Enthusiasts Present: A Long Cold Goodbye

Balls of flame flew off the roof.

Hymn/Fable 4

When They First Met

The first time I biked up Rue Berri I was a 17 year old twig. The incline got to my knees at Sherbrooke and I had to hop off and walk my bike in the bike lane while tourists on Bixis overtook me all the way up the Plateau. At 26, I could weave in between tourists, professionals and automobiles alike all the way up to the cross on Mont Royal if I so pleased.

I was weaving my way to Khaleed’s place for hummus and hookah on the afternoon I met Alayne. She was at the same corner my virgin legs had given out, except she was trying to get up onto the curb with a moving bed on four wheels with a string tied up front. On top of the bed she had a antique bar stool that looked like something a Tunisian would put on their balcony and a Quebecois would put in an independent art gallery.

She was the type of beautiful that assured me many men had stopped in her path to offer assistance already. She had declined their loaded offers for a reason. I decided to stuff mine with a good dose of practicality.

“That’s a very nice simple machine you have there, but it doesn’t seem to be ideal for your current task,” I said, not immediately moving to help her up the curb.

”It’ll do the trick. Thank you,” she said. She replied with a grin that turned from curt to surprised to pleased as she looked up to soak in the true calibre of male face standing in front of her.

”You don’t have to tell me precisely, but if you’re travels are going to take you more than a couple more blocks, I have an ingenious contraption in mind that I would love to try and build with this and that combined.” I pointed to my bike and her flat bed, which showed now to be of the shoddiest construction.

Once she got the back wheels onto the sidewalk, she wasn’t holding the bar stool well and it jumped up to do a dance, hopping on and off of all four legs in a spiral until she could steady it again.

”Alright Da Vinci, built your prototype.”

I got off the bike and unhooked the bungee strap I kept wrapped over the back shelf to carry onions home from Epicerie Mahgreb.

”Wood on nylon, it won’t scratch.”

She nodded to indicate I was saying things that were already known.

After the barstool was properly secured to the flat bed beneath it, I still held it in place while I gave 3 fierce tugs to the rope that she had been pulling it by. It didn’t give an inch and was secured in place by two BLANKS. I tied the rope the shelf on my bike. That was when she moved to speak, but I cut her off. I held out a hand to the bike seat.

”I’m not going to ride off with your treasure. You may do the hard work now. But I need your address and phone number, so I can come collect it after I’m done at my friend’s house.”

It worked.

—

Khaleed had a plumbing emergency that day. I showed up to his house with a centimetre of filmy water covering the floor of his apartment. He had a towel plugging the underside of his bedroom door.

Waqi helps Khaleed clean the shit water out of his apartment without hesitation. Then he says that he has to pick up his bike off of this guy that he just met. Khaleed offers him some of his clothes and Waqi leaves wearing a conversation inducing wardrobe.

When he goes back to Alayne’s place, she tells him a story from her life. He gets the chance to take her out.

They go on a date and it goes well.

They are lying in bed together a few weeks later. They profess their love for each other.



The next I met her was over drinks at Big In Japan. It was my go-to spot for first encounters because BLANK.!





This scene shows how much they were in love in the beginning.

It will also show the beauty of Montreal in the summer - aaqib’s idea.

Long story short: Waqi is riding his bike along the canal, dropping in on people he knows throughout the city (some of which me meet later in the story), when he runs into Alayne by chance trying her best to do BLANK. Waqi offers to help and he didn’t think it would be no. Then we flash forward a few days and they are professing their love for each other. They are still new and intriguing to each other, so they are willing to make decisions based on that. Waqi equates it to going grocery shopping on an empty stomach. He can see the places they went wrong now in hindsight. ← That’s the voice of the story.

When climbers summit Everest they say it belongs to them for just a moment. The journey up is so rigorous, the air at the top is wispy thin, and the climb back down to normalcy screams at you to begin. But, for a moment, the unachievable has been done and you as living it in the now. You hold this beauty in your exposed palm for the few seconds you can afford to take your glove off. Then the mountain, agencied by the forces around the climb, pushes you away and back to the pits you came from. It is brief acceptance followed by permanent rejecation.

If I make a parallel to my time with Alayne, will you forgive me the misogynist undertones?


Through this chapter, we also get an idea of who Waqi used to be before meeting Alayne, and discover a difference that we are hoping he can get back to. It gives us hope for his life afterwards.


\

Hermit

(Right on the heels of the when they met flashback) So, two people met, they liked each other and they got along for a little while. It’s not so bad when I put it like that.



I became diarrhetic and it was time again. Enough fresh snow hadn’t fallen to cover my shit since the last time I’d been outside. While I undid my pants, I kicked snow up over the last leaky movement until it was out of sight.

Every previous year, after the snow had melted, there was always a lot of dog shit unearthed in the parks and backyards of Montreal. If this winter ever ended, the stench of what lay underneath the ever rising slaloms surrounding the commune would be enough to kill the last survivors.

Rain

Tears fell onto my cheeks. I hadn’t felt them well up, but my body had taken to committing functions unannounced ever since queerer things had become food.

I wiped them away as more fell - onto my forehead this time.

Alayne looked up with me for proof that the snow had transformed into rain. It was true.

The sun was peaking out, with a warm-oven glow that rested on bordering clouds.

It was the return of spring, a new hope for all the people left in the city. It was glorious. I still turned back to Alayne to see what she thought of it all in her eyes.

She didn’t catch my gaze and I did not blame her. The tinge of warmth brought with it the only time I can truly claim to have sensed something akin of an actual smell of melt.

Alayne had a euphoria, a trance about her gaze. Like the great buddha was levitating in front of her. She was looking at life after death.

I was too.



The novel ends with a quick rush through the Waqi’s now life as a prophet. He ends the story with the line “But I won’t bore you with what you already know.” - This line should have a double meaning, as it means the reader should be wholly aware of Waqi’s role as a religious figure in post-Storm society, but also because the life of his that follows is similar to other religious prophets. The only uniqueness here is getting a taste of Waqi’s mundane life before he actually became a “Great Man of the Western World”

The title could be “Great Works of the Western World: A Memoir.”

Research

Nov 13

After they win the battle, they interrogate a surviver who tells them there is a highway bridgehead to Kingston that can be reached by ski-doo. There, Ontarians have set up a barter, as well as occasional aid drops by the Anglo government to save face. (Air Canada is spending a fortune diverting planes over NY cross-country FYI.) This gives us an option to allow the snowy society to sustain itself. When the bikers hear about the challenging ride, they are willing to do it, unlike the Anarchs, who balked at the idea. This is the final differentiation between the two groups. It also gives a path forward to the Commune, in terms of how it can function and be a centre of religion and symbol of perseverance for these new qUEBECOIS snow people. “The pole has now reached southward, but only to reclaim it’s most missed child. ” Does spring pass with no change? Or perhaps the sun causes some melting during peak times of day, but a layer of perma-ice has begun to settle in?

So how much has been snowed in? Almost perfectly around the border of Quebec, to the point where people start talkng about the “Great Anglo Conspiracy.” The rest of Canada is fine, but people rarely mention escaping to other provinces, only other countries. This pokes fun at the antagonism between French and English Canada. I also need to flesh out what the city, the province, and the federal governments do to try and live through this event. The final straw is when city hall is evacuated. That means only the people who care are left. This is the situation that makes Montreal ripe for societal and religious change. We already had the Quiet Revolution, now its time for the Arctic one. Start capitalising “the Storm” from the 1 st page onwards.

Promises made on page 1: It will snow.

Waqi’s dick won’t work.

The story isn’t really about Waqi.

Think about what others promises you can make in the 1 st page or chapter and itemize them later.

In the last sentence, you promise that the snow will never stop - that must not be cheapened. We don’t mention a timeline on the impact on his libio. This gives the reader hope that this situation will rectify. WE ALSO MUST SET UP HIS DEPEndence on Alayne as being a prize, or part of his life. He’ll do everything he can to not lose her. This will pay off with him actually losing her. Also establish the beginning of Waqi’s identity crisis now that he doesn’t have his dick. He must be bewildered. The last finish must take with it all the libido he had left in him. This is a good way to explain how he is able to cum. Need to really evoke a feeling of desperation and crisis in Waqi from chapter 2 onwards. If he still has a glimmer of hope in his second sex scene, that will keep the reader invested as well.

How does Waqi feel after losing his dick? Bewildered initially, trying to gauge what’s wrong with his body. Then wracking his brain for excuses on the way to work and knocking each one down with increasingly alarming certainty. He goes into a bathroom stall with headphones plugged into some porno, and only feels quesy. “It’s not just dislike, it’s disgust.” Then he feels sadness, crying in the stall, when he hears Seb come in. Seb senses that Waqi isn’t perfect for once, and that propels him to dump his own shit on top of the problem heap. Then he feels dread of their sexual encounter, which is temporarily forgotten due to all the fun he has with Alayne. She truly is someone special. Then he feels relief when he confesses to her, this must’ve been a build-up over a couple of chapters. It is against his usual temperament as he usually doesn’t share feelings with people unless there is a practical reason to do so. This time it serves no clever purpose , only to relieve himself and stop doing something he hates. He’s had sex with women without being totally stoked before, but he always enjoyed it to some extent (I.e. “He got hard”). This shows he’s had a bit of a warped idea of sexuality from a young age.

What does he feel after the relief of dread? Embarassment - this is why he avoids Alayne. Regret - for making his feelings clear to her. Desperation - for losing more and more semblage of the man he used to be. Then he suddenly feel acceptance - when Alayne makes it clear that she plans to stick around. Then he feels vulnerable - when it sinks in how much of his current happiness depends on Alayne sticking around.

Anger and Frustration - At Alayne for still trying to make romantic advances. This is irrational, as how can she deny her own libido entirely to please him? These feelings foster and grow, along with context, until he jolts into suggesting the affair (that’s a long time in story time FYI)

We need to fake out Waqi’s idolization of Alayne from being just idealization to her actually getting proven a prophet. Make worship allusions throughout. “It should come as no surprise that I still worship her in present day. Moreso now, of course.”

The morning after scene one in Waqi’s place. Anthropology - study of a player in his natural habitat. The dirty dishes left in the sink. His phone is still attached to the house speakers as it provided the soundtrack the previous night. He was looking for it when he woke up. He woke up on time anyway which is a testament to the routine he keeps despite falling asleep later than usual. He comments on this in narration. He showers the filth off of him and feels much more elation then when he came the night before. He may as well have pissed on Alayne and he could better describe how it felt. He checks his face in the standing mirror in the living room to fix it (He keeps a stand-up so he can truly see how an outfit works. From how his pants sit at his waist to how they hem at the right altitude above the cusps of his shoes.)

What else can we describe about his home?

The sick bookcase he has (a good way to foreshadow the 2 nd last chapter.)

The spare bedroom for guests where he keeps his drawing aisle. (Foreshadows M. Drapeau’s future time spent there).

Show the areas where he entertains guests and where he will store his beers once brought home from the Dep. Later, the bar fridge will end up disconnected and tucked into a snow bank on the balcony. This is symbol of the old technological conventions being abandoned and re-invented.

The Bedroom: This requires attention. Is it a temple? A lab? A funeral pyre? A torture chamber? A theatre stage? Make it many different things on the mood of the relationship. Let’s map it out:

1 st scene: It should feel supernatural, like a shaman’s tent. Usually it’s been used to cast a spell on the women that Waqi’s seducing, but now it’s cast an entirely different spell on Waqi. “It’s like the blood of inhibition that I’ve slayed and splattered on these walls has uncongealed and slid back down and flooded my lungs.”

2 nd scene: Waqi sleeps on the couch. Maybe he pictures her room being a princess’s cell atop a tower and he can’t slay the beast to get to her.

3 rd scene: They try fellatio. It feels like a theatre stage (in line with the comedy theme).

4 th scene: They cuddle. It feels like a prison cell (in line with the tragedy theme).

1 st time in Poland: A lab. Trying new things as a young virgin.

2 nd scene alternative: A temple that is too pure for him to enter - use this!

3 rd scene alternative: torture chamber but spun in a dark comedy kind of way.

4 th scene alternative: A funeral pyre. Maybe it could transtion from prison to funeral in the same scene. May make a tense scene even more dramatic.

What other areas of the apartment can we use throughout the story?

The narrow alley between 2 tenements that is used in the final battle. How do we use this scene prior? It used to be a shade garden in the fall. Shows how narrow the actual period of juvenation is in Mtl. When the snow finally covers the last of the dirt in the shade garden, that means that winter has fully set in.

There are also other neighbours who’s lives he can see from across the courtyard like Rear Window, or my time in the Jamhouse. One of them is a couple that argues all the time. This reminds Waqi of his parents. They argue all the time until one day the turmoil of the snow is too much and they are quiet. They load up their car to leave one day, presumably arguing all the way down the road.

His proprieter has tried to renovate the complex to attract gentrifiers. He is evicting the poorer occupants as he is able to. Then renovating the apartments and raising the price. This creates tension within the actual apartment between the young professionals like Waqi and the old workers like M. Drapeau.

There is another pretty girl who plays her piano in the mornings (unemployed.) That really lifts the spirits of the residents who get up early every morning to commute. She is one of Alayne’s friends. Waqi used to have fantasies about having a threesome with both of them while he still had his dick. He was enough of a player to even attempt it. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Then have Waqi do into the increasing intricacy of trying to please 3 people instead of 2. That is unless one of them agrees to be the pleaser who is passed around. That can he bot. Now all Waqi could picture in that situation was disappointing 2 people instead of 1.

What is her friend’s deal? Is she aspiring to be in the Montreal Symphony? Spends her days honing her craft and making money by tutoring kids at piano. She may also be a member of the silo rave band. This way Alayne loses a friend before Waqi does and it can jolt her into having a character change.

The song “Seasons (Waiting on You)” could be a good theme for this story. The proprieter has a scene where he re-states the rules of the condos. Then he leaves with the rest of the cowards and that’s what allows Alayne to set up the commune. When the proprieter leaves he makes a speech that no one has a job anymore so they can’t pay the rent to him. He is ruined as he just bought these condos 2 years ago. These bougie people leaving are formetly rich people who are leaving to be poor people somewhere else. No insurance company has enough $$$ to pay for a whole city, so they’ve declated this entire storm an “act of god” and left it for the companys with the best lawyers to fight in court and get $$ for their sky scrapers. This allows Alayne (with socialist leanings) to get sympathy for a Bourgeosie.

Bartender: Immigrant bar owner. He presents the embodiment of a rebuttal to the Anarch’s views. However, we see that his situation is more nuanced than that. Let’s not have him give Waqi advice. That’s too cliche. Let’s have him running around the bar trying to keep up, and only talking to Waqi when there is a reason to. This keeps in line with the idea of Eastern Pragmatism. Waqi is looking for a convo, so for once he is taking on the role of a western romantic. He’s had convos with the bartender before, but only during opportune moments (closing time etc).

How do I flesh out this dude? Figure out his life before Canada. That’ll swing it.

He came from either Haiti or French West Africa. Let’s go for the latter. This is less of a leap for the whole East s West thing. He left Mali or Mauritania after things got hectic. He had some cash, but also worked his ass off for a decade in order to buy the bar. This shows immigrant work ethic, but may be a bit too fantastical. He needs to have a bigger sacfrice than just hard work.

Leaving family behind
Wronging another refugee to get ahead in line
Comitted a crime in canada
Obtained illicit money (via the bikers) to get his start - This makes the most sense as it ties the setting together neatly.

Think about the other theme that has some meat here: What makes a man, a man?

What loses his libido early in the story. He needs to reflect on the new mechanics of his organ. He needs to reflect on other times he’s had similar problems, and note how this time is different. “Those times when it was over I felt disappointment, this time I felt relief.” He also reflects on that moment of clarity right after a man finishes (the devil’s laugh) and how that is his disposition constantly now. Perhaps this is what made him so contemplative and literate in the time after the events of the novel elapse. This can also be rationalized as a reason God would want him to go through this whole ordeal in the first place. He is to be the scribe/witness to Alayne’s rise, while having the personal stake required to dedicate himself to documenting her cause. Before he knows or entertains any altruistic reasons for his predicament, he falls in deep with the idea of reinventing what it means to be a man, focusing on other ares of his life to compensate for his lack of libido. This doesn’t quite work, which leaves him bitter, until the religious angle dawns on him.

The fact that his re-invention run ends with disappoint, and that the only thing that brings purpose back to his life is the advent of a new religion in which he has a crucial role, is a great commentary that the novel can have. It speaks to our need to feel like we’re a part of something greater, and how unhinged we can get when we’re left adrift with only rationalization and regimen to keep us whole. (Reword.)

Outstanding Questions 24NOV17:

Should there be 4 or 5 Fable chapters? Fable 2 and 3 are planned too close to each other. We can probably condense them to 1.

1: Born and taken into home of noble and raped
2: Excursion to far off land that leaves noble dead and Ibn taken in by beachcombers
3: Ibn is grown a bit and leads attack on head savages that liberates brothels
4: Winter campaign - this may be redundant and combined with 3
5: Final battle where he returns to Myosh and exacts revenge.

What is unique about #4? - Nothing. Eliminate it and combine cool battle ideas about cold climate with 3.

Voice

This document is to help you get into the voice of characters and the narrator each time you sit down to write.
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Narration:

First Person Limited with brief moments of Omniscient. Waqi is telling this story from the future, trying to make sense of the events that took place, but tries his best to be faithful to the facts he knew at the time.

This conflict within the telling from the narrator, and inclination towards self-critique, fits rights in with Waqi’s character.

Voice:

The narration uses big words but only with precision. He sometimes debates what word would be best to describe something.

He also creates words when an existing one doesn’t come to him.

He assigns names to people he sees but doesn’t know. (i.e. Blue Pants)

He uses hip-hop and Quebecois slang.

He refers to the reader as “You” a lot. The proverbial you.

My name is Waqi. It’s pronounced like Joquin Phoenix, but shorter. This is the story of life after death. It doesn’t begin there, but it ends there. I may have just given away the ending mais that’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done. At least this way you are in tune with the subtext, and hopefully can relieve yourself from the astute reader’s urge to analyze every passage. I assure you, you can take everything literally and it will make sense, and reach the same end goal I did. Those who over analyze literature suffer the same

His voice: inquisitive, articulate but not afraid to use slang. He uses slang from other places he’s lived. “You reckon?” His command on English, French and Arabic is admirable. We need a situation for him to use Arabic. He is apologetic to, and respectful of, the reader.

Cosmetic

Titles:

-40

The Plumbing’s Frozen!

Dickless

Cuck

Great Works of the Western World


Chapter Titles:

The could each be French idoms like: Petit Mort, to fall into someone’s eye (tombre l’yeaux) - this is the title of the chapter where they first meet.


Chapter Title: A Long, Cold Goodbye


He describes classic chess games, classic paintings, classic music, classic sculpture. Many of the chapters make a motif out of the great works of the Western World. That could make it the title.

Notes Archive

May 6

;;;;; ;;;

It’s like wanting a beer and wanting to feel drunk but not liking the taste of beer.

From Reddit:
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*HYPERLINK “javascript:void(0)”

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nightcrawler616

2791 points 3 years ago**HYPERLINK “https://www.reddit.com/r/TumblrInAction/gilded” x4\

OK, here’s how basic asexuality works for me. And it took me until 40 to figure it out. The only times I’ve wanted sex, was simply out of hope that This Would Be It, I would finally feel what other people feel!
Aaaand it never happened. Sex for me was an awkward, boring, kind of gross experience. Every single time.
And I was married and had three kids.
I faked it, EVERY TIME. Because it was always a weird, messy, body function that was slightly more pleasant than washing dishes. A chore.
I lost my virginity at 21, because I was curious. And I thought, “That’s it?”
After I divorced. I tried dating a bunch of times. I had emotional crushes on people (men and women both), but it never went sexual. No matter how much I wanted it to. I would get crushes on celebrities and fictional characters, but never pictured myself doing The Deed with them.
I would have sex with men I dated. And I always and to fake it no matter how much I liked the guy. And I really liked some of the guys an awful lot. :(
Whenever I did masturbate, I would picture someone who wasn’t me having things done to them that were hot. It was usually two guys, because I don’t know what it feels like to be a guy, so I can make up what it feels like.
In my “fantasy” sex mind, sex always feels like how I want it to feel. Basically just the orgasm part. And orgasms are great and all, but not nearly as important to me as it is to most people.
Ugh this is hard to explain. I once had a mad crush on a man, when I was in the Navy. He was the husband of a friend, and I just adored this guy. He was funny and awesome! I wanted to hang around him all the time. I wanted to be special to him.
It was never sexual. I just didn’t understand that at 20.
Later, in my 30s, after he divorced my then ex-friend, I had a fling with him. When he said he was attracted to me, I got really anxious. But I had my little crush. I went and visited him. We had sex and it ruined my crush. Because sex was still gross and awkward. This guy was not bad at sex. But when we became sexual, the awesome crushy friend part went away.
I’ve never fallen in love. I’ve never felt more than a crush. And to me a crush feels like the excitement you get when you get involved in a hobby or a fandom. That rush of fun and wanting to know everything.
The love I feel for my kids is entirely different. It’s so intense it almost physically hurts. And it doesn’t feel like crush/obsessive hobbies at all. It’s a need. It’s this protectiveness. This wanting to make the world perfect for them. It’s caring about everything. How they feel, what they want, what makes them happy. What’s best for them even if it hurts me. They’re EVERYTHING. When I hold my kids, I feel warm and cuddly and that pang in my chest. I feel what they feel. I try to see everything from their POV. I want to kiss all the ouchies and makes everything better. My kids are teenagers now. I still feel that intense protectiveness and delight. And fear. And hope.
Love should be like that, I assume. Different, of course, but with that same forever feeling.
Here’s my best analogy:
Sex is like beer to me. I don’t like beer. I want to like beer. It looks awesome. Especially all icy on a hot day. I like the idea of a good beer. I appreciate the description of a high quality beer.
But it all tastes bad to me. I can make myself drink it. If I’m drunk I don’t even taste it. But it all tastes bad in the same way, and I can’t tell good from bad.
I can pretend in my head that beer tastes like hard cider or my some awesome carbonated juice. But actual beer is bitter and horrible.
So, actual sex and actual beer are two things I never want. No matter who talented the lover, or how finely crafted the brew. It makes me sad, actually.
So that’s asexuality for me. And 20 years of trying didn’t fix it.
Does that make any sense?
EDIT:
Check out *HYPERLINK “https://www.reddit.com/r/asexuality”/r/asexuality for more information. And *HYPERLINK “http://asexuality.org/“Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN)
To those who have PMed me, I will get back to all of you. Promise. OP will deliver.
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They have skis to get around once they can’t walk.

They have a huge bookcase that they are proud of, but they must start burning books once the hydro fails.

They have contrasting careers. He is a historian like that professor who studies cuneiform at the British Museum, while she is engaged in something that concerns the current world (also higher earning).

A lot of their friends are spending the winter in Ft. Lauderdale. - A running joke.

They mention at their first date out with friends (2ndish chapter) that they moved in together 2 weeks ago. Before that the man refers to it as voluntary bondage?

May 13

Subplots: Family. Is one estranged? Is someone unwell?

Waqi coaches a male or female colleague in their romance. He has a lot if insight, as an anthropolgist and a spectator.

The stud is someone they know, but how to make it unique?

They are friends with an STM driver who always has great stories. He is at the bar. He really wants to be a musician? He quits his job as the snow hits and writes an album. He plays it for the folks at the apartment. They cry at it’s beauty.

Asianne is frustrated with her job. She wants to switch but is unsure about how it will leave her financially.

A friend is in the process of getting wrapped in the mafia.

Waqi’s father was an ambassador for a magreb country so he stayed in many countries during his youth.

There is a rave at the Canada Malting Silos.

Waqi mentions Third World Therapy

Conversations\

• Third world therapy\
• Cuckold\
• Physicality - he has a demasculating friend
  
  Human females exercise choice. That is different from other species, even chimps.
  
  Weave in his view that the ubermensch can get past being horny to achieve a greater humanity. Think about what the Japanese are up to.
  
  His job: Historical Psychology? Sounds funny
  
  When he was young his time in Tangier coincided with that of an infamous expat exile. He thinks of Tangier as being tour-packaged as Experience Sodom for a Sabbatical.‘
  
  Ibn Batutta was born in Tangier
  
  The smell of sex - something most people are OK with, but I can’t be. Same thing with coffee breath being acceptable if the girl is hot enough.
  
  He must be very athletic, but a bit different because his hormones are off.
  
  He must not be an intellectual, too boring.
  
  Careers: Events Planner, Firefighter, talent agent, social worker, urban planner,
  
  Reads Books on: Ibn Bututta
  
  He is an Urban Planner. He lives in a city that stopped growing in the 60s, but the current shift in weather is helping him to form a new type of community where he lives. He is interested in the STM worker’s story because of his love of the metro. The day they close it feels like burying a grandfather who once embraced the whole underbelly of the city.
  
  Waqi goes to a storytelling workshop. This is a good way to get monologues about his past, and little setpieces from other people unrelated.
  
  Waqi was a Tangerine, not a tangerine, but a native of Tangier - for spoken word
  
  Urban planning: Proposing a metro extension into the west island.
  
  Also looking at building an overlaying level of pavement over highway 15 where it is Decarie to reclaim living space.
  
  
  
  Story: On the night it starts snowing forever, a man finds out he is asexual, and must find out a way to stay with the love of his life.
  
  Aspects: Snow, Montreal, Urban Planning, Storytelling, Commuting Books/Philosophy, The Relationship.
  
  Relationship: we know the path of it mutually. We know much of Waqi’s journey. What is Alayne’s journey?
  
  Alayne works for an NGO supplying mosquito nets around the world. She is the ultimate proponent of effective altruism, and expounds on it at a dinner.
  
  She understands it’s tricky asking for a raise working for a charity, but her starting point in terms of morality is so much higher and the average person so she feels OK about it.
  
  Waqi is jealous because she is actually making a difference today while he is just dreaming. He makes that joke twice at separate social engagements with strangers.
  
  She is trying to get a raise at work until it shuts down. She comes up with the plan to combine her and Waqi’s skills to survive.
  
  She also has the background from having volunteered as a missionary when she was younger. Now she is less religious. She makes the joke that she is dating a muslim guy to go in the opposite direction. He resents that joke at fetishizing him.
  
  They have their mutual annoyances but they talk about them. Nothing really gets them to the point of breaking up except… the sex thing.
  
  Sebastian: coleague. He has a subplot. Suicidal? That works especially well since the world is ending. He has never had a girlfriend. He suggests that he be the one to sleep wit Alayne. Waqi says no because it would be better with someone more experienced. We have a separate problem. Combining our mutual headaches wouldn’t help either of us.’ She’s going to find someone I don’t know.’ (Does she?)
  
  Waqi is waiting for Sebastian in a bar and gets hit on by a good looking chick. He is polite and tries to flip the girl onto Sebast when he shows up, who spoils the chance. Waqi tries to coach him afterwards in seduction.
  
  Sebastian has had sex with hookers, and one awkward experience. Does that count?’ Waqi - All men aren’t collectively in some professional league or something. Only you’re keeping score.‘
  
  First they bond over suicide. Sebast finds that easier to confide than the sex thing.
  
  The neighbourhood can have graffitti complaining about gentrification.

Pre-Jun

Mar1:

He lives in a poor neighbourhood but pretends he is rich. His mother is an immigrant that pinches pennies and sends stuff home with him. His father is uncommunicative.

Make it about my life in a unique way.

He is hesitant to bring the girl home to see what his life is like.

I thought of the above while reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Pun. Crushing poverty and commentary of criminality.

The book is magical realist due to the snow. Adding any more magical elements would be a disservice to the genre and the reader and the narrative.

Combine the story with the one about the man in a relationship that suddenly becomes asexual.



Apr 30:

“What do you want to do?"

"I’m never really sure.”

The book could have multiple set pieces of them out and about in Montreal having adventures.

The man could decide to live apart in the jam house if it means he won’t have to hear his gf making love.

Plot:
Mention the snow.
They are having sex. From the man’s perspective it is very painful. When it’s done - that was the last time I ever let her put her mouth on me.

He goes to work in the snow and we see the rest of the world around them. The whole time he is thinking about how much he hates sex. He has only had it infrequently but now that she has moved in it is more frequent and this has opened his eyes on how much he hates it.

He meets her at work and they go out for dinner.

They come home and she tries to jump him. He makes up an excuse. She agrees and them go to bed. They wake up in the morning and he tells her that he may not like sex anymore.

They discuss it over brunch as it is the weekend. She is very hurt but he makes it clear he still loves her. The snow is starting to get to their knees. The news crew is outside their place and talking about the snow.

They try cuddling. Then his girlfriend get’s horny and tries to get him to talk to her to get her worked up. It goes well and she asks him to touch her pussy. He still likes holding hands and kissing her.

He gets really guilty and overhears her masturbating in the shower and watching porn. She suggests he see a psychiatrist. He explains that there isn’t anything wrong with him. Then she suggests a couples therapist. He pauses and suggests they have an open relationship. She agrees.

She takes a man home while he works on work stuff at a cafe. They discuss what happened later in frank detail. She felt immensely attracted to him. Why did she pick him? Because he was hot but seemed to lack any substance. That way she wouldn’t fall for him. But it wasn’t the best because she associates sex with love, as she’s begun to realise.

If they had more time she may have wanted to break up and seek another lover who wanted to have sex. But they shouldn’t do that because the world is ending. He suggests that he would have let her, as he wouldn’t want her to be alone. He would still want her in his life. Many couples suggest that they want each other in their lives after break ups and it doesn’t happen. Maybe this would be a different situation.

She says it is fine as they will likely die buried in snow soon. Her longing for a sexual partner is something that would grate on her in the long term, but since they will die in some sort of short order, she is overjoyed to be spending her last days with the man she loves.

They go on the roof and watch the sun come up at 9:50 am, the latest sunrise. As it rises it warms the air and they kiss knowing their last days are upon them. Then they feel the snowflakes get heavier and wetter. The first signs of spring. It usually comes around this time, but this year it felt like the world would never see another one.



Unknown:

On January 15 th it started snowing in Montreal, and it never stopped.

On January 14 th I had a date planned with a delicious looking Quebecois chick.


She laughed. That line always killed.


I’ll be honest. When we first went out, I was going through the motions. I said a lot of the shit I said to you to every girl on every date. It worked. By the third week, I knew.

She replied: I loved you the moment I saw you.

He: sorry.

Jun 4

At the onset of a never-ending snow storm, after just having moved in with his girlfriend, a man discovers he no longer likes sex.

He used to like sex but something has happened to him. It is sudden and feels supernatural. He questions whether he ever liked sex in the first place.

Characters:

Waqi
Alayne
Sebastian
Nicolas - stud from Alayne’s work

Style: Musical with invented words. Waqi likes jazz with it’s upbeatness and improvisation.

Point of View: Third person limited - Waqi. He has hindsight. Why is this story being told? To reflect on Waqi’s life before his new chance at it.

Magic:

Asexuality:

The cause is miraculous. He doesn’t understand it, and tries to look back on his past to figure out where it began. This is our gateway to his life growing up, and his past dates and relationships.

Snow:

The snow starts falling in time with his sexual issue. We know it is a special event because of the hindsight of the narrator. Initially it is treated as regular, until it slowly becomes clear that it is a significant event. The snowfall results in a form of adversity that the residents of Montreal aren’t use to. It unravels the planned city he is in, as he tries to plan a new community with the snowfall being a pillar of the new reality.

Explanation:

There is no scientific or spiritual explanation given for either magical phenomenon. Their commencement and potential ending is completely out of the realm of understanding of the characters in the story. The characters do come up with explanations that make them feel comfortable.

Snow: The city dubs is as a “mini ice age,” akin to those experienced through history.


The characters run on a spectrum of least to most structured lives.


The Community: Evolves from a standard apartment to a snow-filled utopia to a survivalist hold-out. People in the story who initially lived farther away from each other end up living closer together.

This may be how the lie of Alayne sleeping with someone he doesn’t know comes out… as Nicolas ends up living next to them.

We need Nicolas to be a full fledged character for drama. Cheating is where the conflict escalates.

Maybe Sebastian assaults Nicolas on Waqi’s behalf.

Get another female into the story without her being a counter love interest.

I think the idea of everyone eventually living under one roof makes this comedic and continually raises the tension.

”More and more of my problems keep packing into this building. It’s like a reverse clown car."

"Music is a good spectator sport.”

Their parents? Alayne’s could be in Ft. Lauderdale on holiday. Waqi’s parents could be living there too… eventually. Waqi’s mother could be the other female character.

How does the story end? Climax where Sebatian tries to assault Nicolas but fails. The old guy dies. Waqi and Alayne have the penultimate argument, and she goes to live with Nicolas. Waqi burns all his books. Waqi feels he must make amends before the world ends. He takes her onto the roof and tells her he wishes they could each have their own new lives. Spring comes.

I need to make sure I have a good ending. Writing has been a decade long ambition for me. It is time to get serious about it. There will be no better time to invest in it. I will have a 2 bedroom house in an artistic neighbourhood all to myself. The extra rent will be rationalized as my investment in a good writing space. My parents will be invited over to stay with me to help rationalize it as well.

The ending: Need to provide some hope. I am not in the business of writing with the point being to suck the hope out of my readers. The characters must endure pain and hardship. That I cannot compromise on, but I must find a way to provide optimism at the end of it.

The relationship: the central problem of sex, but there’s something deeper rifting them. What is it? They need to learn that they aren’t meant to be together. Compatibility on many levels may not make up for incompatibility on one level.

Research: sustainable living in cold weather communities. VICELAND’S Jungletown.

The couple: The seem to be able to solve all their problems through calm discussion and patience, until some stuff that’s been festering comes to the service. The dude takes it all in stride and is polite even though he is utterly crushed.

New word: tabernacked - to curse the word Tabernac. Use it often enough that it becomes real and not needing to be referenced.

Jun 20

Their faces strained upwards through the windows of the car, trying to puzzle out the combination of 3 parking signs to determine if they were in the right or wrong.

What is the diagnosis for his affliction? There are multiple theories by multiple characters. Don’t play up the doctor angle, but let it be there in the background.

Phases:\

1. Normal Winter City Life\
2. Things Start Falling Apart\
3. The Community Starts Up\
4. Society Falls Apart\
5. The Community Thrives\
6. Supplies Get Scarce\
7. The Community Starves\
8. Winter Ends
   
   
   His past life: How should it be told?
   \
9. Tangier\
10. First Time\
11. Playboy\
12. Persona Non Grata\
13. Montreal
    \
14. His parents move in to the commune.
    
    Playboy: what is it? His discovery of his ability to be a heartthrob. He romances multiple girls during a foreign posting.
    
    
    Restructure:\
15. It’s Just Snowing\
16. Too Much Snow\
17. The End Times
    
    
    Sebastian: Walking with his headphones in hand that could be mistaken for rosary beads.
    
    I need to figure out how to expand on this story. I need another sub-plot, or intertwined main plot. What does Alayne like to do with her free time? What else is Waqi’s dad involved in?
    
    I need more stuff for this book. What better way than to delve deep into my character and see where he takes me.
    
    For EX:
    
    He keeps thinking about the Depanneur owner disappearing, and in the doggest day of winter, he himself packs up and treks into the expanse of snow. We get a taste of what Montreal has become outside of the commune and get an adventure story too. This is good and greatly expands the world in the 2 nd half of the story, but what does it lead to? When does it come in the narrative?
    
    They break up earlier in the story. Waqi is distraught with the development and decides to leave. He follows the relief helicopters to the place they are based. It is a military camp. He avoids that and heads downtown to his old workplace. He heads upstairs to the mayors office, an old room. He thinks hard and has a resolution there.
    
    Sub-plot: people he meets along the way and his chances at survival.
    
    MAYBE: He joins up with the anarchists and goes back to the commune, feigning an attempt to rob it with them, but sabotages the plans and protects the place. Just needs to be done well.
    
    He comes back before or during the invasion, this way the tension in the story keeps building.
    
    Timeline:
    
    Depanneur Owner Leaves
    Sebastian Attacks
    Break-up
    Departure
    Adventures
    Invasion
    Hymn? - Solemn/phyrric victory feel.
    Hermit
    Spring
    
    
    
    The excursion - he runs into someone hiding out in the government building. He runs into police holding down the fort and not being happy. It needs to not feel too much like a fantasy novel. We need a couple of nice set pieces in the middle of the frozen over city.
    
    All of this leads to Waqi exploring another aspect of his arc: Leaving his comfort zone. How does this translate into his final scene? He has gotten a taste of the unexplored in his hometown, and wants more but can’t have it. Since he feels something he wants but can’t have due to the circumstances, something clicks and he understands how much Alayne wants sex but couldn’t have it due to their relationship, and realizes how much of a dick he was to her to expect her to forego something so essential to her.
    \

THEY didn’t try to make it work. She tried while he just was.
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The catalyst for the excursion is the break-up, but the fixation that builds to it is the impression left on him by the depanneur owner.

There is a scene on his excursion where he is in a basement floor room, and a window is broken so snow pours in like an avalanche. He must escape before he gets buried alive. He gets outside but is buried. We must then figure out how to get out from buried. (Lighter?) - research how people get out of skiing avalanches.

Don’t make the excursion a digression. Figure out a way to weave it into the rest of the story.

A man learns how to let things go. (Move on etc)

Realign the story with this new detour planned in from the start.

The anarchists are around, but also other groups in the city we see before hell freezes over.

The meteorogolical/spiritual stuff that happens in the clouds needs to be hammered out. Is it just Waqi’s best guess at what is going on? It has to be. The frigidness of nature mirroring his own frigidness is too obvious a parallel for Waqi not to touch on. He touches on it a bit late, and calls himself an idiot as a result - which is a good chuckle for the reader. Does someone else notice it when he mentions his ailment? No, because most people just care about themselves.

A couple try and fail to keep their relationship going with sex no longer in the picture.

The companion he meets during his excursion is quite the character. Their interaction is nice but then gets weirder and weirder until the walls cave in. This is Waqi’s mirror showing the ultimate extreme of his life.

He is carried back to the apartment by the anarchists - by force. He is in their imprisonment. This ups the stakes to the utmost, and it is layered over with his own thoughts being entertained about actually helping them take over the apartment and forsake everyone he’s ever known.

He’s attracted everyone he knows to one place like a magnet, and then divorced himself of them, keeping them intertwined. The last step should be to throw away the ball. If that’s his endgame, it is a masterstroke. He never wanted that, but thinking about it now, it felt almost too right. Like an OCD for villainry.

Other groups around the city:

The Portuguese retauranteurs
The Hasids of Outremont
The Muslims of BLANK
The poor people of BLANK
The hipsters of Mile End
The Italians of BLANK
The elite of the Old Port
The artists of the Plateau

Each of these groups meets their own fate when Waqi goes out to explore the city. He is off to find the right place to die. This could be what the depanneur owner said —> He feels it is wrong when one is readyo to die to just do it. That is when man is at his most powerful and capable. For then, nothing can stop him from meeting an end. And if it does sop him, he’s even happier. Use your pre-suicide glow for a purpose. The purpose is for you to figure out.

Write the first scene as epic as you can. Put your balls on the table.

They go to a Christmas market

Timeline:

24NOV: Loses libido.
25NOV: Goes to work.

Jul 9

The flashbacks are always of warmer weather. He usually copes with the cold by thinking of warmer times.

He views his life as progression. As leading to his current life, fate leading him to this girl. He can’t accept that this may have been a false hope, or a mistake or a meandering branch. He views that as a failure.

This is the story of hope after a relationship you thought was everything.

This is the story of life after death.


Waqi uses You’ a lot to break the fourth wall as a storyteller. He is telling this story in hindsight with some revelations built in. He only uses the You’ technique to challenge perceptions he has made with hypothetical conflicting points of view from the reader. He also acknowledges things through this manner like “This particular moment is hard for me to recount.” ←Maybe

He talks about stepping outside of himself a lot. This is also done by novelising his story.

Once he has his feelings, he goes on the subway to see if his sexual feelings can be brought up when thinking about other women. They cannot.


Try to tie together the past events into a cohesive stroy that blends with the present one.

How can this be done?

Let’s try by making it a hot vs cold story - theme

Tangier - hot
1 st time - hot
Playboy - hot
Persona non grata - hot
Moving to mtl - hot - he is not exotic anymore - just another arab immigrant
When they 1 st met - hot

These are his summer memories. They all happen at the peak of july. The high points of his life. His supposed life arc that is now being subverted. He doen’t know how to cope, until he finds bravery in the attack. Even then he is fucked up, and deep isolation leads him to the thoughts he needs.

Not every scene from the past should deal with sex - actually that’s bullshit. He is trying to figure out where his sexuality went wrong. Of course he cares.

Tell the story like someone whose native language is French. That’ll explain the shifts to French now and then.

Nicolas is from Australia? Waqi: “I used to be the kink Alayne needed but now she’ll settle for an Australian. From non-white to other white. One day she’ll settle for red hair.

Food Thesaurus?

Use the observation from the bus of of two workers taking down a pane of glass from the bus stop with precision and working together. They have powerful suction cups that help take it off one of the older bus stops which still has a Videotron ad - make an all encompassing company in Montreal that has it’s hand in everything to some extent. They bring the pane of glass to a wooden plank on the roadside and then switch the suction cups to carry it into the truck on it’s longer side instead. The teamwork and precision and logistical foresight speaks to him.

What nationality is LKA?

Aug 16

If you ask me what the meaning of life is, I’ll tell you it’s to survive long enough to procreate, and raise your offspring until they’re able to survive long enough to procreate. Then you’ll either give me a chuckle or a grunt, depending on your disposition.

If you then clarify and ask me what the meaning of human life is, I’ll tell you this: We build things. They stand for a time. Then they fall apart.

The above “we build things” fits with Waqi as he is an urban planner.

Can his urban planning tie in with the mafia? Maybe. He understands construction and it’s ties to the mob, but what about permits. Then what about approval for build new city projects - yes. It is true, but we need to mention it in a matter-of-fact jarring way.

Maybe he tries to get a project off the ground in vain? Or approved in vain? The latter. He is still trying while the city is falling into ruin. This allows him to keep at his job and gives him something to do instead of just brooding.

The circus is holding a show on ice later in the winter that Alayne is preparing for.

Who’s coming?

Sebastian. He was at the housewarming party.

Oh, was he the guy who sitting in the corner, and constantly sweating?

The leader of the alumni is genderless, with Waqi using ze as a pronoun instead, but once (or twice) mistakenly relapsing to use she. He doesn’t correct himself. It’s a human mistake.
\

Should I be proud I loved her until the very end, or embarrassed that I didn’t hear the train coming? - Thought of Waqi\

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Sep 4 th Outline

Waqi - Dream of Project (Building) - Obstacle (Mob) - Defeat (Threats) - Compromise (Commune) - Victory (Hiding Spots)

Alayne - Dream of Project (Show) - Obstacle (Government) - Defeat - Societal Collapse - Compromise (Commune) - Victory (Acrobat Battle)

Their Relationship - Asexual - Attempts - Wandering - Extremes - Break-up

The 1 st scene up until the toilet will be rephrased into a street fighter scene and the line skeletal hand gripping bars will fall out.

The Depanneur Owner: Is Trans with no gender.

He creates fanciful stories about how his ancestors have been merchants forever. He is not referring to biological ones, but the ones he is reincarnated from. He tells historical anecdotes about his previous incarnations. He may have mental problems and uses it as a coping mechanism to be connected to something greater since he is shunned from society otherwise.

When he loses his dep, he mentions ancestors who died shortly after losing their businesses. He wonders what the next life will bring before walking off.

”The next life will have to be kinder than this one” - tear jerker line.

What does Waqi think about while in bed? How nasty it was. He compares it to lying in a pile of garbage - Surrounded by orange peels and coffee grounds is the same as lying in a pool of expelled cum & sweat.

The next morning: we get a tour of his apartment & how all of those considerations feel empty now. This fleshes out the place that we’ll be spending a lot of time later on. Then he walks out into the city and to work. - We need more conflict & interaction here. It’ll get too boring otherwise.

How does scene 2 proceed? In my current - he feels too resigned. In the new one, he must actively try to recall how to have sex in desperation. Make him make one lewd comment in scene 1 to cement his old self.

He tries watching her in absent mind. When he tries to get his mind into it, he thinks about sweet memories & his semi-limp cock gets hard enough in her pussy to cum but he is psychologically a different man. He feels filthy. Because he can still get hard, Alayne hangs onto some hope of correction. He lies in bed asking himself the same questions that the audience is asking. He tries to think of reasons for it happening. Bring back the snow motif a bit stronger near the end. Who does he interact with the next morning? - Dep owner.

His shop is nasty and stale but he likes the magic freezer. The owner agrees to deliver the beers that Waqi picks out. This is good because it will keep the momentum going during a later scene. The dep owner illuminates some of the other things going on in the neighbourhood. This is our first contrast between Waqi’s internal despair and external cheer. Bring up the anarchists.

How does the first snowfall affect his business? Less beer and more wine sold. Waqi knows this and buys accordingly. “It’s wine season now you sore bastard.” He is reluctant to agree due to his personality. He says the Alumni association has been against him since he renovated into a semi-cafe. They say local businesses need to pay back into the community that supports them. Waqi: “They’re only hassling you because they can’t get at Videotron or Hydro Quebec. Vivek needs to get his perspective back. Waqi pauses to asking a question: “What makes a man a man?"
"Not asking silly questions like that. Does he have a cock? Does he have a purpose? The riddle is solved.”

The different beer varieties can foreshadow events and characters: Kosher beer, Beer with Italian name, Beer fermented with orange and coffee (hint at the night before.)

Then the walk in the park until he the metro where he sees the bum playing classical music and is transported into a far off land where he conquers people and rapes their women - another example of manliness. This could be like that mythical story of the orphan boy I thought up. - Really good music makes Waqi think about he advancing part of it - really illustrates his imagination and makes a story within a story.

A few lines about the metro and he arrives at work. Tells us about a meeting with his boss and Bastian. Make the meeting about his new ideas very Kafkaesque. When he first arrives to work he runs himself through ideas and dismisses Bast. Then we get to see his charisma switch on during the presentation to his superior. How is his boss? Sleepy with a good pair of heels. She is more concerned with unseen problems than Waqi’s proposals.

This is Waqi beginning to fail at work along with his sex life. He refocuses on work soon after he stops having sex the 1 st night so we get to see how serious the meeting is the next morning. I like how these ideas are getting tighter!

The “what makes a man” line - tHe dep’s response is actually sarcasm, which it reveals at some point.

The Alumni Association:

Urban planning - The leader (Vivek) holds a more anarchist and communal view towards property and public works.

Other potentially bullshit degrees: greek studies, socio, psych, philo, fashion design, communications.

If they each have a subtle clue to their education, that’d be cool. The leader: Vivek (or a girl?). Both him and Waqi were ethno-scholarship winners, but there was only a quota for one city planner and they went with the less risque candidate. (Meaning Waqi is easier to corrupt). He is a hothead conspiracy theorist who is abrasive & constantly looking for reasons to be outraged and offended. He has ADHD and cuts off people and moves the convo along (Like Mark G). He has dark circles under his eyes. Endearing q’s”: focused on equality, idyllic, Dreamer with diff dreams.

All the char’s are dreamers in varying capacities. - THEME

They are sleeping in the park in tents at the beginning of the story. Waqi enters the camp in the same way that Thommy enters the Lee camp in Peaky Blinders. He asks them about the harassing of local business owners. Vivek gives him the rationale.

Waqi warns that the butter cold will set in soon and his less die-hard fans will leave. Then he’ll need the love of the neighbourhood. “They’ll love you when you’re flea-bitten and starving. They’ll only fear you as long as they have to. They squat in the local gym once winter kicks in. One scene later they use barbells as maces and weight lifting bars as staffs. (Weapons). (Or they squat in the community center - sounds more appropriate.

They get more menacing as the weather gets worse. Start robbing the hood. Waqi makes a deal with them to provide BLANK in exchange for safety and they agree. Then one day they disappear once there’s nothing left to rob.

We see them again in downtown. They have ski-doos hooked into a carriage. When they need gas someone burrows down into the snow over a gas station based on someone’s saved Google map of the city.
”It’s nowhere near cold enough for gasoline to freeze.”

They’ve amassed a lot of survival gear, through robbery. When asked, Vivek has lost all his principles in favour of surviving. Waqi has not, so he wins the moral fight in the end.

Is it really a moral fight? Maybe in the 1 st fourth of the arc but then they both looks bad until Waqi looks good near the end.

Seondary Alumni:\

• Fashion guy - makes everyone “sustainable” militia uniforms.\
• Communications major - makes all their pamphlets and bull horn speeches.\
• Kinesiologist - runs their gym and keeps them in shape\
  • Anarchy fitness - originally in the park and eventually in the community centre.

Sep 12

The side story - when does it trigger?
\

1. Bum at metro\
2. Small flash during dancing with the Brazilians.\
3. Listening to music during a work out\
4. Hearing music at a the rave.\
5. Listening to old records in his home alone.
   
   What is it showing us? The life of a glorious, archetypal man of legend. But subverted? He ruins the city that birthed him. He becomes a man despite being raped and all other odds as a child. Ibn Kellas combined with the story from In The Bowels.
   
   Is this right for this story? - It will add some diversity from mundane city life. It may seem forced. It will be fun. Think long and hard for another side story idea that may fit better.
   
   Don’t take the Syria story, that will work on it’s own.
   
   How can I make the Brazilians come into the fold later? I will spend energy on them yet they never come back. Maybe at the silo rave? - But that’s much later in the winter. No, they are and enclosed mini-story. What is their plotline? They have an interpersonal conflict that they each tell a piece of to Waqi.
   
   Let’s skip walking to Alayne’s work and have W walk in admiring her physicality as she finishes practice. Describe the rest of the acrobats, clowns and Nick. She is being held by Nick as Waqi looks on. Her closeness makes him jealous. It is a sign that he still a stake in this relationship. He collects ehr and kisses her with lust and purpose, to reassert him claim on her. Then we cut straight to the bar where Waqi experiences an overload of his people watching and imaginative side. They’re always trying to find people to speak to and rope into their night. They are like swingers, without the group sex.
   
   Make the Brazilian’s side story the main story to my 2 nd novel. A group of rich kids who lives at 40 stories above the world. Moving from work to school to home in helicopters. Their friend died in a mugging the last time they went down to the surface.
   
   The man has to make a decision about entering politics with the intention of doing good for the city. The girl wants her boyfriend and her to leave the city and engage in traditional voodoo in the countryside. We don’t hear the third person’s take on the decision until Alayne tells Waqi alter (creates suspense).
   
   At the jazz bar, prior to meeting the Brazilians, they do rapid ride conversations, trying to find someone interesting. He spots the Brazil due having trouble ordering and helps him out. It turns out the Brazilians are rich and they order many drinks. Make these characters cool, they may form the foundation of my next book. The dude talks like Luis. His girl talks like Tonie M. The is also when Waqi and Alayne retort with the story of how they met. “I gave Alayne a look. She was an acrobat but this was one of the tricks we always performed together. Telling our meet-cute story was our own little stand-up routine. It got better each time. We fine-tuned it based on the last reactions.” The story they tell will be different from the actual one we get via flashback near the end of the book. They’re attempt to spit shine their relationship for others is in line with Waqi’s inclination to keep his despair quiet.
   
   This is part of why they keep the relationship going. They both like the public persona they’ve build and want to keep it going.
   
   They leave the Brazilians after looking out onto the freezing lake together. The last cracks of water are sealing up and it give the sense of impending doom (the bedroom). W and A get back to their house and Waqi is hesitant. Alayne says she’s seen him romance many times before so she can take the reigns. She comes back wearing some of his clothes and mimics him. He gets more and more mad and sad. This is a good way to ratchet up the tension as we know what’s coming next. She keeps trying to seduce him until he finally must rebuke her and starts crying. She thinks it is because of the role reversal. Even though he is adamant it is not, it leaves just enough doubt in her head not to be convinced of his condition. “That night I got out some freshly washed sheets and slept in the guest room.”
   
   How does the Tangier scene fit in thematically? What mistakes has he been making since then? He dreams about his life with the white girl. It is very hopeful but he is a kid. This develops his fetish for white women. It also explains that he got his charisma from a young age as a matter of survival. He was always a dreamer, looking out over the strait of Gibraltar.
   
   Make some childhood friend characters.
   
   Also, first chance to develop his parents. They are happy with each other in their younger days, before his dad has to take them abroad.
   
   In present day, Waqi meets up with Sebastian in a chess cafe. Waqi gives him a chess lesson in his own way. It shouldn’t be super devious, but reflect his cunning personality. All the pieces aren’t individual, but sum up to the collective whole of the organisms “black” and “white.” When you see the strings between them is when you begin to get it. Try to use chess notation in an accessible way. After a move, describe the capture or positioning in a dramatic way. “The knight moves into position, staring down the bishop. The first loaded gun is drawn."
   
   "When you see the strings tied between all the pieces is when you begin to get it.”
   
   At the same time Waqi is concerned with the game, Sebast drops hints to his suicidal troubles. Seb asked to hang out and Waqi took him to do something he himself likes. Waqi dismisses the suicidal comments at first.
   
   Seb is stupidly optimistic about his chances at the beginning and then gets more defeatist as his game slowly unravels. Upon checkmate, his desire to kill himself is revealed. Waqi is horrified that he may have been the catalyst as the result of this game. (Theme connected to Alayne’s idea about being the cause of his impotence). He is bewildered, and then angers when Seb assures him the chess game did not help in his decision. This is when Seb reasons the real reason for his feelings: girls. Waqi regains his composure now that the conversation has come back to something familiar to him. He tells Seb he can help him, but only if he can stay committed for longer than the duration of a chess game. IF he can’t, he wants assurance that he will not be blamed for him finally going through with the suicide.
   
   Later, whe nthe dEP TELLS wAQI THAT HE SHOULD be an agent of change if he has already decided to kill himself, this serves as foreshadowing for what Sebastian is about to do.
   
   Then Waqi is at the bar. He is drinking his stress away with his neighbours. One of them is the folk singer of Quebecois songs (research them). The bar is one of those sleazy ones with the slot machines. Mention the two room workaround for city by-laws regarding gambling.
   
   The bartender is Haitian. An immigrant success story. He is accepted by the community, but there is still some recial tension. This ties into how Waqi is treated by M. Drapeau later. As the bartender is serving, he is dodging glasses and slurs being thrown at him. “The drunks need beer so they come here. When they enter they are still sober and too tired from the factory to fuss. When they get drunk they find energy again. It also easily tells me when they’ve had too much for this bar.” The bartender gets Waqi adn the STM guy to through him out for a pint. He hands them $20 to give to a taxi parked across the street.
   
   ”What if he lives farther way?"
   
   "He’s not going to go home. This is to get him to the next bar, and maybe leaves enough left over for a pint if he can collect enough of his wits off the sidewalk after you two are done with him.”
   
   The other patrons: The STM driver who has crazy stories from his job. He is wAQI’s boy.
   
   Theere are working girls around. There are bikers that are less badass than hells angels. The Haitian lets them run their poker games here so they let him be. “That’s why we don’t open on Wednesday nights anymore.”
   
   The other patrons: mechanics, locksmiths, electricians, plumbers. A lot of useful skills for the upcoming apocalypse. “This is the bar you come to if you’re trying to start a home reno, not a fight.”
   
   We need to know what appens to the bikers. Do they move in and Alayne keeps them in check? They move in after the anarchists disappear so they don’t know what’s waiting for them when they invade.
   
   The next scene is Waqi as drunk and we’ve seen him up until this point. He is stumbling home. His perspective isn’t drunk as this is all told in hindsight, but it is told slightly differently due to artistic license. He walks back to his front porch where his downstairs neighbour has set up an obstacle course for him. He must pass it in order to get his house, trying to be nice to Mr. Drapeau in the meanwhile watching from the window. He finally gets back into his house and mutters an insult to M. D under his breath.
   
   Obstacles: M. D used to hunt in the Quebec woods when he was younger so: trip wires, bear traps, smelly spray. Pellet gun rounds that hit Waqi’s coat and cause goose feathers to fly up and out of it. Drapeau keeps escalating and Waqi’s politeness gets even more absurd. “You miserable, xenophobic asshole. You’re old and will die soon. There are more of us coming.”
   
   When W and STM are throwing out the drunk, he swears a filthy monologue on Quebec’s decline into plurality and muslim theocracy. Make him as sympathetic as you can.
   What feels right next? Make up brunch or picnic?
   
   The next day, W and A are at a clown picnic in the park. They are all practising for their winter carnival and show. Fire breathers are walking around and reigniting flames dwindling due to the cold. There is a block of ice trucked in. A man takes bites out of it until it becomes a sculpture at the end of the scene. It is a famous sculpture. It is Michaelangelo’s David, with the small penis, afraid of Goliath. The man used a rag to brush off his spit at the end. The statue glistens from the melting and spit combined.
   
   Nic and Waqi are watching a performance and get to talking about the beauty and power of physicality. Nic believes the body to be a weapon. Waqi believes it to be a clock. The sense of time that is most important to our lives in general. He instructs Nic to make the most of his body now, before it begins telling him it is entering the afternoon.
   
   Waqi also talks to Alayne at the beginning of the scene as she is instructing people where to stand. She is holding the support rope for one of her friends how is climbing a street lamp. She tells Waqi that she loves him and they can take steps to make it work later. She is hushed in her delivery, and they are both dancing around it to make it seem to the public that everything is OK. This is demonstrating their public/private split.
   
   They also go to the Dep to get supplies, to keep him involved in the story. He helps them out in a pinch regarding one particular supply to show his kind side once again.
   
   The next scene is Waqi spending time in Warsaw as his dad’s first diplomatic mission. He goes to a riverside barbeque with a girl he knows from school. He meets her friends who make cruel jokes about him. She defends him and kisses him. When they are alone, she asks him if he has any concerns about causing her pain. He replies No, but doesn’t understand the question. She takes him to her cousins basement, who is watching TV when she walks in. He barely acknowledges her with a boy, which makes him wonder how fucks up she really is. (She is Meggy.) She is fucked up. They have sex and he worries about putting on a condom until she pushes him into her by the buttox. Then she wraps his hand around her throat and chokes herself. She him to bite her nippe. Harder. He does until it takes salty. He’s worried it’s blood. He pulls out and cums. Spurts go over the bed and she is pissed at him. She pulls a roll of toilet paper out from under the bed and tells him to clean it up. End scene.
   
   She fucks him because he is exotic. He is the victim of ethnic fetishism, which makes him think his own eth fet is OK.
   
   The next scene is Waqi and Alayne at home. She reaches for his dick and strokes it. She is stroking it and cupping his balls. She lays her head on his thigh and looks up at him lustfully. He describes it all in an absurd manner. Then thinks if he can get her off, she’ll let him be.
   
   He is gagging while trying to lick her pussy. He tries to lick until his tongue is dry and less likely to pick up any taste. This also makes her clit dry. She doesn’t like the feeling and grinds her pelvic bone into his mouth in order to get friction. She keeps grinding, and he starts to feel it may be out of anger or frustration at his new state of being. She cums.
   
   When they are lying together she asks him how he feels. He says, “I don’t appreciate being used like a bicycle seat.” OR “like a Victorian noble girl would use a horse saddle.” - He may have the latter thought while they are in the act. Make this scene fairly short so it doesn’t wear on the reader. They will have 2 sex scenes back to back.
   
   The next scene is Waqi riding a Vespa in Buenos Aires, He is wearing a preppy uniform and riding a bike without a license as it is more lax there. He is like Alfie here. He is at one girlfriend’s house, telling her his family is leaving the city maybe? He goes to another girls house and tells her his family has just moved to town and he needs someone to show him around. The first meet-up can be seen as sweet and he is being vulnerable. His monologue betrays him a little but not too much. He fixes his face in her mirror and asks if he can take a bottle of wine for the road. She is older than him and he is in her expensive house. The next girl meets him at an open air art show. They see a lot of paintings. She likes one. He says she can buy it and he can help her take it to her house. She agrees and they ride down the streets with a painting hanging off the back of the Vespa. They dodge through traffic and Waqi describes all the places and what they mean to him, and on which corner he has made out with which girl. Then they get to her place. He asks to use her bathroom. Final line: We ran the sink while I fucked her to drown out the moans for her grandma in the living room. End scene. He is describing paintings in the old lady’s house. They are famous paintings by made-up artists depicting semi-real events. Waqi has become cultured from spending time with this women. He uses that knowledge to help seduce the younger women he meets later.
   
   The next scene is Waqi sitting a bar with a women nearby. We know it is modern day for a reason. (Need to figure out). The woman gives him the eyes and he resents it due to his newfound disposition. He decides to play along in the effort of helping Sebastian who is soon to arrive. He flirts by finding out her profession (law) and coming up with all the various facts about law and major events happening soon and so much more. He can really talk about anything and charm anyone. In his head he is resenting this woman and everything she stands for. He sees a younger version of his boss in her.
   
   When Sebastian arrives, he makes a complete, awkward fool of himself.
   
   The next scene Waqi is at the gym. He is running and gauging his body due to the conversation he had with Nicolas leaving him alarmed and curious. As he gets to his limits, he drifts off to the fable land. When he is alert again, he sees his boss enter and go to the naked sauna area. He also sees the lady mob boss arrive and do the same. The lady mob boss is not elegant and wears Doc Martens and a ill fitting suit. He figures they are hear to talk business since they can be sure neither is wearing a wire. He strips down and goes into the other gender’s section. They are having sex in a private berth.
   
   ”Oh,” he says, disappointed that this is all there is to it. The boss tells Waqi to stay, pointing to his penis. “It’s obvious he’s not interested in helping us out.” His boss takes a blade out of her hair in reflex. They lay bare the corruption of the city to him. He says he can be corrupt too. If he does a little good in between, that’s his problem.
   
   Boss “You’re doing all the good you can by being foolish and believing in that motto on our dept door. Now keep on dreaming your dreams and leave us be to consumate our blood marriage once again.” End scene.
   
   The next scene is Hitch. His resentment for his boss is still fresh so he projects it onto the woman. Seb fucks things up by trying the usual pick up artist playbook. Waqi narrates it as Step 3. The Neg. Seb negs. The women retorts. It is like another chess match that Seb systematically loses once again. When the woman throws her drink at him and leavess, they debrief. Waqi tells him fliting is a numbers game, and that he is going to take him to a cool party, where the chicks might be high enough to fall for your shit. Leads to silo rave.
   
   While they are at the bar, the bartender keeps bringing more and more elaborate drinks I.e the Spicy Thai Gin Collins.
   
   The next scene begins with Waqi setting the stage for what the silos are and what they represent. He and Alayne are getting ready. He watches her put on her jewellery and make-up. She doesn’t look in the mirror as she puts on her lipstick like she used to. The walk to the silo along the canal. Little kids are playing on the ice. It is frozen solid now which shows the passage of time.
   
   W, A, Seb and a friend do shrooms served as toppings on a poutine. They start rolling as they enter the rave.
   
   W tells Seb to stay sober so he can mack on the high chicks but Alayne intervenes and calls that exploitative. W caves and they all get high. This chapter shows W and A doing drugs in an effort to spice up their relationship, but they do it effortlessly which re-emphasizes their cool.
   
   Alayne may bring a dorky friend along with hopes of getting her together with Seb. They fumble around each other and ultimately don’t do much. They’re both hopeless and yet don’t find each other attractive.
   
   The rave is bumping and they spot all the St Henri eccentrics there. The Anarchists are there handing out flyers. Waqis spots some of them sneaking naps in the warm corners of the silo. (Shows that they are tired of the cold.) This is them at their most desperate before they succumb to their evil sides. There is frostbite on the leader’s hands as he gives Waqi a flyer. Waqi meets all his artist friends who are all working on various quirky things (including novelists). There is a dj playing on one floor and a live band getting ready to play on the upper deck. Waqi watches the band mates perform and communicate with each other. The music takes him away to fable land, where he has a trippier than normal telling of part 3? Of the fable. When he omes back to reality the band is at their climax when the floor beneath them gives way and they fall to their deaths. All the party goers stampede away. Waqi grabs Alsyne and walks towards the opening in the ground because that is they opposite of the motion so they won’t get trampled.
   
   Another scene setting: A resto like Arthurs where people from the rich scene eat extravagent dishes. This one has found a way to stay open and W and A ski through the streets to get to it. This is where Waqi brings up the suggestion for non-monogamy.
   
   The next scene is the aftermath of the silo caving in. Waqi gives a high level recap of what has happened since then. How slow law enforcement was to respond and how much it showed that society as a whole is falling apart. Waqi details how he and Alayne both lost their jobs and how they consoled each other afterwards. Waqi also tells how each of the factions in the city is coping with the new order of things. They both have lunch with Alayne’s dad, who explains he is saying bye and flying to Ft Lauderdale on the last of the planes. They also talk about the mass exodus of people from the city, and those who have decided to stay. This still seems kind of like a normal winter to them, just a bit harsher. Make the conversation oddly mundane and absurd. Then have Waqi explain how the anarchists have moved in to the community centre, and how the falling of the silo emboldened them to the changing winds. What is the end point of this scene? - Waqi tells how Alayne’s father left wednesday. The last operation out of Dorval left the week after. Also go into a slight aside on how the airport kept up with clearing the airfield and ATC while this was all going on (rely on your own knowledge). Then tell how Waqi looked on the radar and saw a huge gap in the skies over Quebec (when he got curious a few weeks later.) The radar was as black as the sky now (due to some yearly thing ie equinox).
   
   The next scene is Alayne and Waqi cuddling in bed. They stroke each other lovingly. The few times Alayne reaches for Waqi’s belt line he shifts away. They talk about how each other are doing in terms of coping with this situation. Waqi waxes on coming to terms with never cumming again for the rest of his life. Alayne seems miffed by the propect but won’t admit it. They also talk about if they should leave the city. They decide not to, as both of their dreams comes from hinging on the city of Montreal above anything else. Alayne determines that she should still try to put on her show despite all the events around them, somehow. Waqi decides that he will read books and make more designs to be used in the new snow-filled Montreal.
   
   He pauses and says… “what if this is permanent?” She thinks he’s talking about his dick but he means the snow. Then he says that the city will need an urban planner to make a snowy utopia possible. All the mobs won’t know how to re-adapt. I need to be more nimble than them and build the best plans. Alayne gets discouraged once his head starts roaming into the clouds again, but her wheels are turning.
   
   After they cuddle, Waqi says that was nice and A agrees (a reversal of scene ). Then Alayne goes back into the the shower. Waqi steps out of bed to go get his sketchbook. One the way there he gets curious and puts an ear to the bathroom door. He hears Alayne masturbating vigorously in the shower. “She sounded new but familiar, like an old acquaintance I’d forgotten the name of.” End scene.
   
   The next scene details people getting into sleds and skis and trying to get out of the city frantically once police helicopters get scarce. The city has been dropping aid packages around the city. The first few were met with orderly lines, but now people were fighting over them and dying. Waqi starts the chapter on the roof watching the skies. He sees one come and watches the anarchists form a scavenger party to scare anyone else away. They get there first and fire guns into the air to stop others. The rest of the starving move away. This chapter is a detailing of the choppers before, and snooping on people in the present. (It is an ode to research, astronomy and movies like Rear Window). Waqi’s third story neighbours have decided to make a run for it. Waqi and Alayne pack them some things from what they have and wish them the best of luck. The roads are still bare enough for cars at places. People drive until they get stuck and then get out to shovel themselves out and keep going. The chapter ends with Waqi assessing the remaining populace in the city. “All that were left were the destitute, the stubborn and the marauders. If I saw a chess board with the remaining pieces reflecting similar odds I would have instantly resigned.” End scene.
   
   The next scene is flashback to when he was living in Thailand with his parents. This is when he had to escape with his dad, so it reflects the current situation. But it also shows why he wants to stay now, because he’s run in shame before and hated it. He is living like a king, which a live in maid that he fucks. Their house is also quite lavish and he is studying muay thai with a trainer. He is also helping his father by running errands for him. He later finds out his dad is making him do see people that he himself can’t be caught with. Waqi gets acquainted with his Dad’s contacts. One day his dad comes home in a huff and gives Waqi a like of people to settle affairs with ala 25 th hour by Spike Lee. Waqi has to go to his dad’s brothel and pay the pimp. He knows some of the working girls and asks them about their problems which he is highly familiar with. He has given them advice on how to run their brothel and they think he is cute. He has no desire to pay for sex but they always offer. Then he must go advise a business associate of dad’s that all further affairs will be conducted from abroad. We can see that this teen is keen. He has been a boyto for a long time, as his exploitation at the hands of artsit lady in Bs As made clear.
   
   There have been hints about his father’s sleaziness in previous chapters but now it is clear when he walks in the door with his shirt uncuffs and sweaty brow. He looks like a philanderer. He bamboozled his way into an ambassador job. He put his son out to hustling tourists as a kid.
   
   Mum explains that they must leave and tries to comfort Waqi. He tries to get him to come clean about his pop’s lifestyle but he doesn’t spill the beans. “I vowed I would never run from things myself once I was old enough to have the choice. ” End scene.
   
   Dad: philanderer, empowers Waqi. His idol to living like a playboy.
   Mom: Moral anchor, who tries to help him but he can’t respect her because she stays with dad. His dismissal of other women is fueled by this.
   
   Hoe does this situation resolves?
   
   In present day, he finally sees his Dad as pathetic and his mom as noble now that he occupies her role and Alayne occupies Dad’s. This is a really cool parellel between the two couples.
   
   Waqi now does not care about lust and just wants stability with Alayne, just like his mum wanted with dad. She rebukes his wants in favour of merely his own libido.
   
   The next scene is the bar rally. It begins with Waqi saying to the crowd “We should seriously consider leaving town.”
   Who is there?
   The usual drinkers, some of their neighbours and some people we’ve seen Waqi describe walking around the neighbourhood. People mention all the messed up things they’ve seen happen and what the anarchists are up to. Alayne makes the suggestion for the commune. Waqi is surprised and perturbed because they haven’t gone over it in advance. This creates tension. She mentions that Waqi is an urban planner so he can help design it. She goes around the room and names people and what skills they have that can help get the place up and running. Someone asks “What good can a city planner be at designing a home?”
   
   She responds “This city is dead and a new one must be built. All colonies start with a stronghold. We are the new men and women that sailed over with Samuel de Champlain.” The folk singer is the MC. He is asking for order, and passing a bottle of Unibrue around the room as a torch so people know when it is their turn to speak. He does it with his usual elegance. It comes down to a choice amongst the people there. There are mothers with children too. A bunch of them decide to join up with the couple. It is a stirring and emotional moment when the racist drunk from earlier decides to come in with them too. His decision is one of practicality and his his remorse is out of fear that these people might retaliate against them. He debases himself by begging to be let in. Waqi offers himself for a hug and the man accepts. Waqi describes his smell in an hilarious way and how he tries to stop from gagging and that is the End Scene.
   
   The next scene is the team setting up the commune. As thy are moving in, they notice the old man’s house is rather quiet and Waqi, emboldened by back-up goes in to see what’s going on. They find him sick and clinging to life. They also go because the snow have reached the top of the first floor door around the city. They take the old man upstairs to their place and put him on the couch. There is a nurse amongst the group who takes his prognosis. The rest of the group labour at setting up the commune. Waqi is excitedly telling his his plans and how things are going to work. Alayne’s circus friends also begin showing up to help and live. The old man wakes up. The nurse calms him. When he sees Waqi standing over her shoulder he freaks out and reaches for something to hit him with. Waqi shoots him the most menacing smile he can while the nurse is focused on the man’s face. Waqi zeals over his power over this racist man. End scene. EXPAND ON HOW THEY SET UP THE COMMUNE. NEED JUICY DETAILS
   
   The next scene is a flashback to Waqi arriving in Montreal. It starts with them arriving at a relatives house and Waqi getting used to living a much less lavish life, sleeping in the same bed as his parents. It reminded him of less lavish times in Morocco. He goes to school where the rest of the Moroccan kids don’t like him since he’s into weird shit and a freshie. This is a view of the city through the eyes of an immigrant. He discusses meeting his best friend, how is now working in Dubai as an urban planner, designing copies of historic monuments from the rest of the world (bring this guy up earlier but this is the first time we get to meet him. He is mentioned a fair bit. This creates anticipation and makes this scene pop more.) He is also the guy who got Waqi into city planning to begin with. Waqi is lost in this city and gets a new ambition through his camaraderie with this boy. He is the most heroic and pure man in the story in some ways. They end up going out to a nightclub as foolhardy young men and get into a fight with a younger Anarchist, who completely changes from a douche into the new leftie we meet at the beginning of the book. This creates a backstory for us which is great. The END SCENE is when they are both sitting on the sidewalk nursing their wounds and Waqi thinks that this boy saved his life, but only now that he thinks back to it.
   
   The next scene is open mic night at the commune. They’ve set up a stage in the snow and the musicians sings and the circus freaks perform. All the performance artists Waqi knows also show up. This is their attempt to advertise the commune and get supporters. Waqi also invites the anarchists in an attempt to make peace. He offers them food from their greenhouse in exchange for safety (this inadvertently makes them attack the dep as their sources of robbery have dwindled with more and more people entering the commune). He explains that the greenhouse needs trained people to use it. They can rob it and never eat again, or they can come by for food. They can’t eat it all as it is perishable. When the anarchists show up everyone is scared as it is a surprise. Waqi didn’t tell anyone he inited them in order not to kill the open mic before it started. This is also him getting back at Alayne for planning things without him. She doesn’t appreciate it because his secret had a lot more of their safety at risk. The End Scene is when Alayne is cold with him. He mentions how he’ll “have to find space in the greenhouses to plant a couple of roses for her. They may grow if spring ever comes again.”
   
   Waqi hears gunshots in the night. He has a dream around them, it triggers fABLE SCENE 4 - which is a big battle. The next morning he goes for a walk in snow shoes to the Dep. He gets there to find the windows smashed in. The Dep owner is lying inside beaten and all the booze has been trucked out of his store. This scene needs help. Something for the bus.
   
   When Waqi walks into the Dep he sees the owners “wife” dead an the owner near death. He fashions a sled to take him back to the commune. The man is delirious and speaks in prophecies to Waqi. Waqi shows his bravery in this scene. They also get together and have a funeral for his wife. They dig through snow until they hit the frozen ground. Then use tools to dig out a burial plot. “The earth was being stubborn but we gave it back one of it’s own.” This is the chapter that deals with death. The couple had no relgion so they discuss how to deal with it. WAQI also examines a dead body for the first time in his life. This chapter is timely because it coems right after Waqi thought he was slick in creating peace for the commune. This is the inadvertent cause if this. He waxes about the butterfly effect etc. “The next time they come to collect I will place our best shooters with their rifles in windows of choice vantage.” - Sets up later battle. End scene.
   
   The next scene is W and A trying to get a bit of levity away from the now morose commune. They’ve heard of a restaurant still in business that works off of a barter system. They pack some valuables, strap on skis and ski through to the other side of St Henri to downtown. They aren’t scared of the anarchists as people are of the opinion that they should still live life as a “fuck you.” The resto has modified vehicles parkd out front that can traverse above the snow layer. Later, Waqi recognises some of these vehicles as stolen in the caravan of the anarchists. Inside, they eat dishes fashioned out of the remaining crops. They also bater something valuable for something that came in on the last boat into the port before the St Lawrence froze over. At dinner Alayne expresses her frustration at still needing sex. Waqi blurts out the affair suggestion, since he feels she is stumbling around it. She agrees in short order. Waqi lays some ground rules that it can’t be someone he knows but she can use the house for safety. She agrees (not really meaning it). Waqi describes desert and the scene ends.
   
   The next scene is the affair. Waqi spends the evening in a new bar that the Haitian has built in the building. They are brewing moonshine there and Waqi gets drunk off of it. He is sitting with Seb and explaining his predicament. Seb tells him he should use who it is. Waqi concedes and sneaks around to the roof with a bottle of moonshine. He waits until Nic walks through the door. He is livid. Just then the Dep owner walks out, comepletely healed. Waqi cannot process this miracle and is enraged and mentions something about suicide. The Dep owner says that if he is already sure he will kill himself, he should become an agent of change first. Then he walks down the fire escape to leave. Waqi collects himself to tell him that he will die out there. “Who am I? I was a dep owner with a wife in Montreal, where the snow can wreak havoc but it always leaves. None of that is true anymore. I am not me anymore. Now I am a free radical. An atom detached, drifting away.” He pauses like he has something else to say, but it never comes and he turns and walks away. End scene.
   
   The next scene is Refugees. Everyone moves in as their houses fall apart. First some of the circus acts move in with their equipment. Alayne takes it in stride and gets motivated to get her winter show started up again. Then Waqi’s parents arrive. The last time he talked to them was before the phone lines cut. They bring drama and how dad fucked some lady from the same club as mom. For once, Waqi resses him down for being a 65 year old scumbag. Then Nic arrives and Waqi loses it. He throws a tirade as his world is closing in around him. He goes inside to have a one way convo in English with M Drapeau, who is still bed-ridden. He uses him as a one-way therapist. At some point, he notices no frosty breath coming from his nostrils (like an angry bull). ” I’d told a man about the greatest turmoil of my life and I’d only managed to bore him to death.” End scene.
   
   The next scene is when Seb snaps. “If I jus tell you the events as they happened it will paint him as just cruel and he was my friend and he deserves better than that.” The Waqi goes to postulate how Seb was thinking and what led him to do the act he did. “I imagine Seb woke up this way, Wait… while we’re at it, I imagine he was feeling this way after the party. Waqi is active imagination so he retraces the steps of Seb’s life that he is aware of and insinuates how he felt in each private moment so far thoughout the story. He looks at the times he may have failed him. He tries to excuse himself due to the issues e was preoccupied with himself but it doesn’t sit right with him. Finally, Seb wakes up and goes to shoot Nick who wrestles the gun away from Seb, who keeps resisting so Nic has to choke him to death. Then a line or two about the aftermath and End Scene.
   
   The next scene is the one where they break up. W and A are talking after Seb’s cremation. The snow is too deep for them to dig out another grave. They have a tense convo wher Waqi says Nic didn’t have to kill him in the heat of the moment. Alayne says that Waqi has enough sway to protect him from mob justice if he tries. Waqi then drops the bomb that he knows she slept with him and that she’s slept with him again. She is shocked but then says it is a good time to break up. Waqi is stunned. He didn;t wanna break up, he was just mad she slept with someone he knew. The world is ending and we must stick together. She is adamant and leaves to be with Nic. End scene.
   
   The next scene is Waqi welcoming in the bikers who have been out and about and seen terrible things. If these tough guys are coming back, then Waqi won’t stand a chance out there alone. He shows them around and settles them in but breaks own into tears. He can no longer keep a mask when reality betrays him. He then silently packs his things and leaves into the blizzard. He walks out along the same path he used to to get to work. He finds a subway entrance and uses it to get across town in a hurry. He stumbles into someone when he gets outside again. This scene ends when he gets the attention of the other wanderer.
   
   He follows the snowman into his cave of a home. He lives in a pseudo ice hotel. He is a personification of another way Waqi could have ended up. He is a hermit, dreamer and able to create a living space much better than Waqi. The man tells how he’s survived and we slowly find out he plans to eat Waqi. (Waqi may have known this man in the old days.) He is a cannibal who didn’t know his passion for eating men until the opportunity came. “We can find our passions through turmoil and unlikely circumstance.” He attacks Waqi who is saved when he cracks a window leading to unpacked snow flooding the cave and smothering them. End scene.
   
   Note: A dude on the metro has a sandwich sign that says ” Cup Holder - 50 cents a minute.”
   
   The next scene starts with Waqi buried in snow alive. This is also a good scene to have another flashback to the fable land where things are reaching their climax. Waqi snaps out of the fable in time to save himself through ingenuity. He has the chance to turn towards home but decides to proceed further into the icy unknown. End scene.
   
   The next scene is my ode to archaology. Waqi manages to make his way into the subway tunnels. He travels through them in the spooky unknown. He breaks into a few conveniene stores where there are still bags of chips lying around. He makes his way all the way to City Hall (an homage to the first commute so let’s not play that card earlier). Inside city hall, he finds a government that tried and failed to protect itself. It is like seeing the last stand of a major empire, except this is a city (he qualifies it more poetically). This is where we get a big flourish of the (Last Remains of the Western World) motif. The anarchists have mad this place their base. This is found out by surprise when Waqi walks into his old cubicle at the Urban Planning office and finds it being occupied with the Anarch leader. Waqi is apprehended. They say he can take them back to the stronghold and let them in for all their food. We can get easily, thanks to the rich of TMR we now have mobility. The last scene is them uncovering the tarps of their caravan fleet.
   
   The next scene is Waqi driving back in a prison seat with a view. He sees how the caravan works now, how they find gas and the dominance hierarchy at play. He plays with the idea of actually helping them attack the stronghold. He is comtemplative, before finally deciding that he wants the good guys to win, but he won’t play his hand, as he will still be in good standing with the anarchists if they end up winning after all. He remembers the bikers are staying at the stronghold, which may end up being the great equalizer. He prays. End Scene.
   
   The next scene we leave Waqi’s perspective and enter an omniscient perspective to tell the story of the invasion as a carnival or blockbuster movie. (This will be fun.) The caravan pulls up into the neighbour as a flare goes up a few blocks away from the stronghold. It is a warning sign. Waqi notes that they have placed lookouts further out than before. The anarchists shot round at the flare location. Waqi notes that it is just wasting ammo that will be needed for the real battle. As they get close, flaming balls of hay shoot off catapults at them. They have ziplines from the stronghold to neighbouring buildings. Acrobats fly across and set up sniper positions. They train the motorcade to turn into a choice intersection where they have tunneled out snow to create a pit trap for their vehicles. Two of them fall in. The leader comes back to the cell with a gun and asks Waqi where the secret entrance is. He tells them they need to go in through the south side alley. They are balconies that will be easy to break into and they can work their way up through the inside of the building, away from projectiles. As they walk through, Waqi wonders what is taking the defenders so long? He realizes that are hesitating because they see him own there. He is wearing the same jacket as when he left. (He has a recogniable ski jacket from much earlier in the novel. Waqi is retrained but gets into a tussle with a guard. He falls to the floor and the guard is on top of him punching. Through the punches he is able to scream “do it now!” A rain of molotov cocktails fall down and ignite the man on top of him. His jacket catches fire. He wrestles it off and buries into the snow to stay clear of the flames. When he comes out the remainder of the anarchist cars are turning about face and running. Nic comes out from above. It is clear he has taken on a leadership position along with Alayne and the head biker. They assess him and tell the group to put him in a room to heal from his frostbite. End scene.
   
   The next scene is the group collecting all the bodies while Waqi watches on. They light a bit funeral pyre for all the dead people. Individual ones for all of their fallen, and one big one for the enemies. The folk singer sings a bit hymn (maybe Leonard Cohen’s The Partisan.) Waqi finally has time to think back to the fable land and put his characters to death as well. Waqi also shares a cute scene with one of his remaining friends, probably the STM guy, as he says he now finally has a metro story that will top any the STM driver has. Waqi shares a glance with Alayne, who is conflicted but finally looks away. End scene.
   
   The next scene is a flashback to when Waqi and Alayne first met. It is a glorious summer in Montreal. I have already brainstormed this scene. End scene.
   
   The next scene is Waqi alone in their old house. He is getting cold as winter is at it’s peak chilliness and snowyness. He looks through his old sketchbooks and also his old bookcase. As he gets cold, he begins to toss books into the fire, after thinking about what each one has meant to him over the years. The reason he throws them in the fire is because he has already used all other non-essential burning material and now must discard the things he loves. He initially is distressed that he is doing this, but then finds it cathartic. When he tries to remember a passage from a book; he merely paraphrases it and actually figures out a way to reword it into a manner that makes sense for him. He stops and thinks about Alayne and what good she can have in her life. He things about freedom and a new start in the weeks he has left. He gets his dick moving a bit. He is emboldened to reach out to Alayne. End scene.
   
   The last scene is on the roof. He makes his confession and plea and then spring comes. Then Waqi leaves the story for just a few lines to sum things up for us. I will think of this later, and I will also let the story make these law few lines for me. They are not plot, just character commentary. The character wil grow and tell me what he wants to say.\

Oct 2

The fable land:

META:

Use words like fuckboy, levelled up,

The reason for modern word usage is to make sure it seems like this is all happening in Waqi’s head, and gives the fantasy his unique voice. Maybe leave polot inconsistencies in. It would make it more believeable.

Plot:
A child is born and immediately taken from it’s beautiful mother. She is gorgeous but with a facial blemish. In this society that is enough to not let you marry a noble but instead be fucked by nobles to breed cultured sex slaves for them. This boy is thrown into a harem with a bunch of other boys. They are taught many skills and discplines but only for the purpose of entertaining the rich family that will be fucking them. Most important of all, they are told to smile and say “you’re right” and “quite intelligent quip” as they get violated repeatedly. It is considered a great honour when a man of the city puruses the aisles of the harm and picks you to be his fuckboy. So it was that young Ibn was boastful to the older unpicked ones still amongst the ranks when Lord Blank of the family Blank looked on him and said, “him.” They picked the best flowers out of the garden to adorn his neck and wetted black mascara on the undersides of his eyes. The lord came for him with a litter. He rode upfront with him, a great honour reserved for nobles, handmaids and fuckboys.

Upon getting back to the palace, there are a retinue of staff waiting for them (and family). They look at him and look to the patriarch to confirm how good looking he is. That night he and the king hold great conversations about astronomy and chemistry. At nine, the king says he is tired and must retire. He kisses his wife goodnight. The boy follows as he has been instructed to do. As he passes the wife, she squeezes his palm gently. Later, he would wonder if it was for remorse or encouragement when he would consider sparing her life, unlike the rest of them. There came a point very soon where he was no longer expected to talk but perform. He’d only been instructed how, never practised upon, for fear of soiling the sale. He did as he was told, and he made all the behaviour to show that he liked it.

But he didn’t like it.

A year later, duty called the noble diplomat across the sea of salty watr to treat with the warriors of the open land. He told his fuckboy how they hadn’t levelled up to living in cities yet. They still pissed in rivers and gave birth in valleys. The boat crossed. It was the fuckboys first time smelling the ocean. They get to the other side and beach. The lord is presented with a lovely ornament. The ornament is attached to a single, invisible strand of horse hair. It is pulled tight out of the sand and in a flash the lord’s head is ripped off. The lord’s retinue of men are killed. The fuckboy survives by hiding in a barrel of fish oil. When the coast is clear, he is found by a band of beachcombers. Humble, subservient people they are afraid of the water. The boy teaches them to swim and rebuild the boat. They are motivated to listen by social mobility. All people, rich and poor, in the region are landlubbers. THSI CAN BE THE BEACHCOMBER’S great equalizer.

They set sail to take the warriors from a surprise angle. They win. There are brothels amongst the warrior’s land which is against the morals of the beachcombers. The fuckboy lets them keep doing business and empowers them to havea stronger voice in his camp. He decides to ride deeper in to the continent to collect more followers and gain more land.pwoer.

Meaning of life: Nothing is Without Consequence.

Brazilians:
Man - prideful, fopeful
Girl - worried pessimistic
Man 2 - Realist, tells that the girl’s family also has a corrupt past, and his family too (he is the girl’s brother). He says that they have put people down. Theym ust either keep doing it or die for the poor’s retribution. He has a plan to give up his $$ and spill all the family dirt.

Their dynamic: “Tame the monster, run from the monster or kill the monster.”

We hear the last guy’s story from Alayne. That way it switches things up a bit and allows them to also analyse the 3 of them, which is half the fun of getting into these situations in the first plce. They have a convo about it on the way home, which switches seemlessly to the strip tease.

The scene where wAQI MOVES TO Montreal is the one where we use a lot of languages. The flashback with him and the Aaqib character. Give this chapter a “New York I Love You” feel. This chapter takes place in spring, leading up to the summer chapter at the end. (Which is actually the next summer).

The Bikers:
They are the PR branch of a more dangerous biker gang. All the nice hearted bikers are placed in this branch to give the club a good name. Or maybe they are not organized crime, just some semi-tough guys trying to blow off steam through semi-illegal activities. The leader is a really big Canadiens fan and mentions there exploits often. He is tall and big, but also a big softy. When the drunk throws bottles he looks at the bartender who waves him off. “That guy will likely kill him by stepping on his toe by accident. I need you two to handle it instead. The bikers all have code names of famous Montreal Canadians. They call the bartender Subban and make him an honorary member. They are named the St Henri Hab and Harley Enthusiasts. Their jackets are each named after players and made to look like leather jerseys. They use hockey slang in all their conversations and order beer in hat tricks” (threes). This will be really clever whe nwe see bozo the clown on a zipline, with Guy Lafleur following closely behind. What crimes are they involved in? - Gambling amongst themselves, running underground bars, raves. They help set up the silo rave, even though it isn’t their type of music. They also are the ones arranging for the resto that Waqi and Alayne go eat at to run. They are the patron saints of illegal fun in St Henri. They are whimsical, with a loose affiliation with H. They are their media poster boys.

Explore Nic’s arc and one more mob scene.

Waqi goes back to city hall where the anarchists are running dry of the provisions already in place there.The gov’t and mob both vacated already. They don’t love it as much. They appear for one more scene where Waqi is called into her office to be fired. The boss (mob) is there. They appear together in public because society is falling apart and there isn’t much pretext to keep up anymore. They tell him him services are no longer required and they are leaving the city for new Orleans or France. “FLL is saturated . Every Quebecois mobster is trying to make a buck there already. Time to colonize new soil. Or “time to reclaim our own soil that was bought by Jefferson.” They look a little frantic as they are preparing to vacate. Waqi asks if they need someone to run the department in absentia. They say they have more stupid patsies to do that.

”Montreal is lost. You should get out while you can and use your skills in a new city. Waqi is dejected but they plant the seed that results in him making the suggestion of fleeing at the bar later. Make the scene where he gets fired very frantic with city workers stripping the hall of stuff before the end is nigh. This will help juxtapose their response with the balls of people actually willing to ride out the storm. (Or stupid enough to). This also explains why the stupid anarchists are the most evil people left. It will also help tidily close this min-arc.

Nic’s Arc:

He is portrayed as a bad guy, but really he is Waqi at an earlier level of maturity. Waqi only sees how silly Nic is now, with his new perspective. The flashbacks showcase how similar Waqi was to how Nic is now. How is young Waqi’s personality different? He was cockier. Surer of how the work worked. Crueler with people’s emotions. This is everything Nic is now. They both achieve their hero status during the same battle.

Char study: Caveman and Aaqib:

Caveman: resourceful, intelligent, stupidly optimistic, slightly unhinged, introspective. His old profession: professor of philoshopy. He is a bookend to the bums of the beginning of the story.

Note: As the weather gets worse there is a montage of the fate of each of the bums, or at least Waqi’s imagining of the ones he’s not sure of. None of them are saved by his collective as it didn’t exist yet. It pangs at him and helps him be accepting of the collective idea. Anyway, the caveman gives him a understanding of his previous life, and how brutal things got downtown vs in St Henri, where the bikers and anarchists kept a weird order for a time. (The anarchists are a docile threat (most of the time) and the bikers are a lovable protection.)

”People started eating each other."

"Oh god"

"Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it”

Waqi is silent.

”You know, you never know how much you like something before you’ve dabbled, and then you’re hooked."

"Waqi bolts, but caveman wrestles him. He grabs a blender head, but can only crack the window, then he is being choked as the glass slowly cracks. Then the snow bursts through. The hold at his neck loosens, but the cold grips tight everywhere else, and then it grips his neck again.” End scene.

How about Aaqib?

He speaks Arabic too, but is from a different country. He was born in Montreal, so he can relate culturally, but not be too backwards for Waqi’s liking. We see him in 3 scenes: Moving to MTL, When they first met, and a phone call. When does the phone call happen? Before everyone moves in? He must be having a crisis of faith, they dodge around what is actually bothering him, until he half assed fesses up and starts to cry. This is powerful as we finally see someone he can be vulnerable with, but who has recently moved far away, effectively losing that conduit for himself on any consistent basis. They are very warm and affectionate with each other. Does this imply anything? Maybe Aaqib was filling the emotional part of his relationship with Alayne and now that is gone, he feels like it is gone from his rel. With Alayne, but it really wasn’t there to begin with. Waqi must mention this character a lot so we get a sense of how important he is. Then when we finally meet him, we smile.

Outstanding: Ibn Battuta and Urban Planning porjects.

Alayne’s Winter Show: She is of the opinion that the city doesn’t get out as much during winter, and she wants to help reclaim the season. It is also slow season for her circus due to lack of tourists so this will give them income. This will be a show for locals for once, Mtl not putting on a show for other,but for itself. (This also echoes her comments to the Brazilians about Mtl in winter.)

Waqi’s biggest dream: The Pedestrian Overlay on Decarie - Will create a section as vibrant on the English side as currently on the French side. This will require a metric fuck-ton of concrete, so he thenks the mob will allows it. He knows that they run shit and he has his suspicions, so that’s why he picked his current gym (to spy on his boss). He has seen them go into the sauna many times but now he has the balls to confront them due to his personal turmoil. EEven though it is a lot of concrete, they tell him that the trend is for green stuff. They are making more money shipping the concrete off to BLANK. People are happier if they paint bike lanes and install stopsigns. No one has the strength to stomach big ticket price tags anymore. When it is first introduced, we get a brand picture of the vision of the project, Then we are reminded of details throughout the novel as Waqi reminisces.

Ibn Battuta: He is a symbol of Waqi’s desire to be a great man. We get Waqi’s take upon reading about his life. How he left Morocco for adventure. He evaluates himself at different ages in comparison to how Ibn was at that age. Need to figure out how to intro this and weave it in. Right now it would be vomit thrown in.

Morocco Chapter:


Waqi: “I;ve decided that I was behaving like a microbe in a cesspool, but I’ll let you make your own mind.”

If I ever got into too hot of a siuation, or met the Moroccan-German, I could duck into a alley or shack and make myself lost to them with ease.

Upon meeting the white family “I couldn’t believe my dumb luck. ” This primes him for the later abuse in Argentina by the older lady.

Who are the white people? Americans from Vermont, looking for an exciting vacation. Waqi seems to be a great asset for their trip, so they keep him close. They are iniially cautious but warm up to him. It turns into a situation where he gets attached to the lifestyle with them. When he demands the return, they are cold with him. This is the birth of his desire to leave people before they get a chance to leave him. We we first meet his dad in this chapter, he is a glorified conman, He has two younger siblings at home, who eventually show up with his parents to the commune.

(I need to give these siblings some legs and reflect on how I write protagonists. I tend to look upon obligatory siblings are baggage, due to my own background.)

Theit dad wears good clothes and is the tea server at the local passport office. He ends up doctoring ambassador/diplomat passports for the entire family. The reader can connect the dots on this and doesn’t need it completely spelled out. He encourages the boy to rip off tourists and gives him con tips at the beginning of the chapter when a con goes funnily wrong. His pops is seen as a womanizer in this chapter too, as a young Waqi sees him do it, but too young to comment or intervene. His pops is handsome like him, with the same nose and broad brow. Only isssue is this type of face gets rather and brutish as his dad gets older. This doesn’t bode well for Waqi, and plays into his fears of mortality, and decay. Along with his body not being as strong as it was when he was 21. His mom goes from being cute and doe-eyed to weathered and bewildered. Waqi worries what cominbation of their ugly visages await him in old age.

What does the plot of the american beach house consist of? He plays games like monopoly and tag with the girl. The dad sits him down one day and teaches him chess. His explanation is more rudimentary than Waqi’s. Here he is learning how the pieces move, and later with Seb he is holding court on the deeper mechansism of the game. The girl also details the glamour of Western life and how it differs from Morocco. The mom then defines the differences in grander terms I.e. Freedom, liberty, morals, equality. They portray his culture as brutish to him. Their departure doesn’t hurt his want of the West because he knows his own people are duplicitious as well. He can differentiate between people and the ideals they hold at his young age. He is already very keen for his age. The ongoing tension in the scene comes from his lust for the girl. He is still pre-pubescent but can tell she is pretty. She dresses different, acts more lady like and is a diff skin color than the girls from his city. ALREADY the other boys treat him like he’s won a prize. He is worried their greedy asses will try and ruin his happiness (our hint that he knows they are duplicitious) so he keeps a low profile with the family for weeks. It turns to the poit where his parents don’t know where he is. He says something damning to them on the phone, so when he realises he’s been fooled, it hurts even more. His last comment is how much it’ll hurt that his parents were right.

We need a flashback chapter for Alayne too. She needs some attention as a character in general. How does Waqi portray her past through his POV? We can use the same technique we used for Sebast maybe. Let’s have him connect her past with events in his own. This is a problem as it necessitates this backstroy chapter appearing later in the story. One option is for it appear before Person Non-G or Moving to Mtl. Late but not too late. We can also use events that happened in Waqi’s life in our previous telling of it. Creates a bit of mystery (that may or may not be revealed). i.e Around the time I was wrestling monkeys for my lunch in Bali, Alayne was burning bras on the lawn of her middle school.

What to fill us in on? - Past relationships, privileged childhood (compare her to the young girl in Morocco), “I used to wonder what happened to her, then I learned about Alayne, and her own childhood filled in well enough the picutre I was missing.” What bad things happened to her when she was little? Parents got divorced. Only child so he has trouble in older years when faced with opposition or adversity. She spent her adoloescent years falling in and out of love with hobbies and then career paths. Some examples: activism for various causes, art, cinema, law, law enforcement.

IMP Waqi kept his dreams in his head and was demonstrative in the actions he took to survive. Whereas Alayne acted on her dreams and didn’t have to assert herself in the behaviours and tasks needed to sustain her quality of life. IMP

Then she got into relations with guys and they used to push her around and got her to go along with things. This started grating on her and she finally put her foot down in one aspect of her life and got her Resing Bitch Face.

A history of bad relationships and then finally Waqi who treated her well enough while still being a mack (by his own admission.) and that’s all it took for her to fall for him (he looks at this with skepticism as he is at a troubling point in their relationship. The details of their meeting are glossed over here for a 2 nd time to keep us frsutrated again (the first time was when they told a lie to the Brazilians). This time it is glossed over becuase waqi isn’t in the right state of mind to reminisce about their romance, but rather approachs it from a critical angle.

The chapter could be called something like” Waqi and Alayne: A Dissertation on Love in the prOCRESS Of lOSING iT”

Waqi could use theoretical frameworks on relationships and present them in a sarcastic way. He could also reference famous works and use citations (Alain de Botton, Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance.) This is another way I can bring my personal knowledge intp play while writing this novel.

It is hereby resolved that Ibn Battuta will merely bementioned throughout the main narrative and not have a dedicated chapter. Thsis would just slow the story down (we already have the fables doing that) We really need the fables to be relatable to the main story in a tangible way. Show what Waqi values and how he views his own childhood (he was pimped). Also his view on how smart he is compared to his peers. Also his dream of vengeance on those who have wronged him. Actually, the fable is rife with commonality. The real concern is getting the narrative voice to be consistent but different. This is my chance to use simpler words and grander phrases.

“This isn’t your first trip around the toilet bowl”

Describe St Henri:

In the old days the trains used to rumble the whole neighbourhood whenever they rolled through. I’m not sure if the trains got smaller or the tracks got getter (this is the same train that Waqi uses for his relationship metaphor) but I was sure it wasn’t owed to the buildings getting stronger, they were still standing, many with the same steel support beams for the last 100 years. Waqi’s own was built in 1911, a brick facade hiding the renovated hardwood under his feet. 3 floors high, like all “heritage” residences in the city were. No buildings were allowed higher than the local steeple. That was the first rebuke of the church that Montreal did in the 1920s, along with the rest of the roaring contintent. Then they incurred the wrath of God right unto their accumulated bank account.

The anarchist villain personality and arc:

She is the only girl in the story besides family that Waqi isn’t attracted to. They first meet outside the club in the moving to mtl chapter. She defended him and and Aaqib when they got into a tussle outside a nightclub. She wrongly deduced it to a racial/religious issue and stepped in to help them. From then, Waqi could see a ferocity and developed a jealousy that festered. She is also in the urban planning program as they all were at an introductory party. Aaqib and her are ahead of him by a year. (Aaqib by one and her by 2). Therefore, both younger men are ahead of her by the time the main story starts.

Actually, maybe Aaqib was dating her, and that’s how they’re all intertwined. Also explains why he doesn’t like her in any way. This could further cement their past as they have a mutual longing for someone who isn’t there - good.

Anyway, back to the moleskine notes: she chalks it all up to genger and claims that affirmative action based hiring practises are flawed Waqi and Aaqib aren’t sympathetic, they are simply trying to get theres by any means necessary and aren’t socially conscious at all. Waqi only cares for people he encounters personally. Later in life Waqi laughs off ever being jealous of the girl. She is very sympathetic until the pressure of winter makes her do morally bad things. It’s a case study of what can make supposedly good people turn bad. Is it just a strife and suffering? An can less idealist, more pragmatic people come out of the dark with more of their humanity intact?

What happens between the moving to mtl chapter and the park sit-in?

Waqi and Anarch turn to being colleagues and fair weather friends. When the position opens up, she is hopeful, having better scores and a year more experience than Waqi, however he gets the job. She claims affirm. Ation, but he thinks it’s due to him being the “safer” establishment candidate, while still giving the government the outward appearance of being more inclusive. Then in response, Anarch must re-evaluate her SJW worldview and begins to move more towards anarchy. She organizes protests outside the city hall aimed towards promoting a more free form view to building and planning. She sets up a few discruptive architeciture projects around the city that merely end up smarling traffic, causing safety concerns, and pissing people off in general. What are examples?: A pedestrian street carved ad hoc off of Decarie, set up merely with pylons covered in glitter. She did this after hearing Waqi present his idea at a town hall to stir up interest. She also transforms existing buildings through unsanctioned incendiary murals and make-shift annexes with tunnels dug into the main buildings to connect them secretly. She installs a safe space clinic to the hospital so trans people can get treatment without being gendered and gay men can give blood. It is staffed by pre-med students. The government clamps down hard on her after this. Then she decides to set-up in St Henri in protest of renovictions and gentrification. The irony is the majority of people who join are from outside the neighbourhood. They come into the hood and dictate how they think the locals should live their lives. They have no tact and only accomplish alienation. Waqi points this out but Anarch is too wrapped up in her crusade to get self-critical. Waqi: “I don’t think I’ve ever been as sure of anything are you are… please don’t take that as a compliment.”

How do they rationalize the bad shit they are doing? Listen to some Jordan Peterson - he actually captures how people rationally headed towards communism in Soviet Russia. Waqi documents their descent into mob evil, usually from afar. They get mad when people don’t concede to their demands for wealth re-distribution. They also get mad that all these people are living comfortably while they are starving. Initially, when they stir up shit or protest a shop, they listen. Then people start toting guns and bats, so they decide to tote them in kind. This leads them to detest people for hoarding and still charing money for consumer goods. This leads to them forcefully robbing people. This leads to the dead of Dep’s wife. This leads to other off screen depravity. From the death of Dep’s wife, there is no redemption for the anarchists. They’ve taken their path. All that awaits them is ruin as they’ve entered a criminal way of life that their soft asses ain’t conditioned for.

Plot Tightening:

Combine the bums somewhat into the anarchist camp, especially the St Henri one. His philosopher name comes from the fact that he was a philo major in Uni. Waqi then extrapolated on this to name the others (This is explained when he encounters him at the camp. Then they all die (the bums). Is there any scene that can fit them in between? Waqi sees another one of them on the street during a later scene and consults him for advice. Try to find space while on your laptop.

How can we fit in at least a mention of the Brazilians later on? The “kill the monster” guy sticks around and finds a girlfriend later on. Waqi meets them at the silo rave (they could do shrooms with them as well. Maybe then is when we finally get his side of the story. This will mean Waqi can have a “trippy” realization about the “monster” analogy.

Bikers: Need to flesh out the leader and weave then in to other story threads. He has had the worst past of any of the characters and yet has the best attitude. He tries to see the world in simplifications but good hearted ones I.e. “Black people are all hard workers” or “It all comes down to what’s in your heart, not your bank account.” While Waqi doesn’t agree, Biker seems to be doing pretty well societally and psychologically. There is a lesson to be learned from him, but Waqi doesn’t do that until after the battle. What scenes do we see the bikers in?

The 1 st bar scene where Waqi is avoiding Alayne
The resto scene where they are low key running the place
The move in
The battle
The calm after the battle

That’s plenty. Seems to be equivalent to the Anarchy scenes. These 2 groups and Waqi’s scenes with them need to compliment and contrast.

1 st : Anarchy camp vs bar\

• They each have distinctive uniforms
  They each have a hangout
  Anarchs have a mission while Bikers are content - Angry vs Happy
  The bikers have charisma while the anarchs are grating to listen to.
  They both get rowdy in their own ways (silent threat of violence)
  
  Anarch Scenes
  
  1 st : Camp
  2 nd : Silo
  3 rd : Negots
  4 th : City Hall
  5 th : Battle
  
  1 st scene contrast: Introductions
  2 nd scene contrast: How each group is coping with the changing world
  3 rd : How they each interact with the commune (partnership vs coercion)
  4 th and 5 th : Seemless clash of their ideas and positions taken in the world order (huh?)
  
  What is the bad side to Biker? When he has to threaten violence or strong arm he does it begrudgingly, but he still does it. He could choose to be purely good, but he isn’t. I have to make sure I don’t whitewash them.
  
  This dichotomy should serve to be a potentially powerful literary tool. It could be a comment on how diff. Social groups project power. Use your sociological knowledge to make this theme pop off my dude. This is becoming like chess: are your pieces coordinated/what is still hanging?
  
  Re-think the relationship between Anarch, Aaqib and Waqi to make them more related. Easiest solution: Anarch and Aaqib were dating. When? We see them 1 st meet through Waqi’s eyes. He sees that they’ve fallen in love with each other. He tries to emulate that later with Alayne, Anarch and Aaqib function as his surrogate parents-lite. Anarch only starts to hate Waqi once Aaqib decides to move away and Waqi gets the city hall job. One chooses to “tame the monster, kill the monster and run away” just like the Brazilians. (Make sure it isn’t too on the nose.) Anarch misses AAQIB deeply, bu it seems like he didn’t love her enough to give up on his future. She is a western romantic while he still has shades of an eastern pragmatism. Mayve the moving to Mtl chapter chould go a bit more into each of their philosophies on urban planning?
  
  How do we vary up the sex scenes? Let’s itemize them first.
  -Initial\
• 1 st time\
• Fellatio\
• Mutual.cuddling.
  
  I think that’s enough. If there are any more keep them to one paragraph each. There’s only so many ways to skin a cat.
  
  Initial: really get across how disgusting it seems. Make the magical angle strong in this one to set the motif.
  
  1 st Time: Make this one as normalized as you can for a first sexual experience. Don’t shy away from describing the good parts of the experience. This will be our only semi-normal sex scene. If we include one in which he is in full form, there’s no drama. That can best be described by a one paragrapher.
  
  Fellatio: Make this one comedic.
  Mutual: Make this one tragic.
  
  A tribute to the 2 great traditions of playwriting.
  
  In Fellatio: Waqi should be under allusions that their relationship will be sustained through experiences like this. (He’s kidding himself).
  
  In Mutual: he realises this cannot be sustained. We see Alayne’s acting get less convincing. It feels lie the last time they will be even patrially close.
  
  The title of the last sex chapter is “The Last Dance” in French.
  
  Waqi’s Siblings: What do they do? They are 3 0 make them follow the “tame, run kill” theme. Waqi has decided to run from home in this case whereas he is taming Mtl urban planning and killing BLANK (must figure out third battle). Another sibling is still at home and attempting to reconcile the parental relationship. A third sibling has recently run awat from home so Waqi goes or calls to see if they’re oK.
  
  Tamer: Burnout weedhead who works as a trader online.
  Killer: Younger sister who wants to be an artist. She runs off to the jamhouse where Waqi sees her and we get hints of other neighbourhoods/cliques in Mtl on the way there.
  
  What are their arcs?
  
  Tamer is there when they all move in whereas killer hunkers down in the Plateau and her fate is uncertain feel apt. The killer seems like a runner. Have her be a much more sharp thorn in their parents’ side. She could be promiscuous and be the misogynist dad’s chickens coming home to roost. He is a womanizer himself (but can’t handle it when his daughter is one (and a lesbian!) due to his quasi0muslim eastern beliefs. She also announces her acts at family dunctions and is a semi-famous pro-girl rapper in the city. She is essentially Princess Nokia.
  
  His sister is now a full character and I know where to take her, but his brother needs work. He must be a burnout in some sense, so Waqi can relate dealing with him to how he deals with Sebastian. But that can’t be all there is to his character. He is really a semi-genius and intellect runs in the family. But his genius is squandered. He spends his time trading at home and thus has a lot of money, which he uses to fund the rebel group that dwells in the unclaimed country south of Morocco. He is actually a pupper master and trying to create a new world order, but from the comfort of his own home. Make sure this doesn’t interfere with his archetype of taming the monster. It really doesn’t. He’s not supposed to be an inactive character, just a bit of a waste man. He doesn’t date and doesn’t present himself well to the world, but still enables his dad as he is the only sibling who doesn’t reject him in some way, yet he is the least presentable of the bunch. Maybe he doesn’t leave home with his parents to go to the commune? That would make him no longer taming the monster so no. In fact, the big twist is that he is actually being sneaky and having an influence on his dad ( and mom?) for the better. How does this happen? He has made his dad more decile through coaching as his mom has become increasingly beaten down. This is conveyed to Waqi through a conversation with his mom. This should come as a shock to Waqi’s conception of his brother.
  
  The Rooftop: Since Waqi lives on the 3 rd floor, he has relatively unencumbered access to the roof of his triplex. The owner used to grow weed up there during the summer, and now the area is tarped over. There is also seating and a refurbished part of the roof that the owner has set-up. Waqi goes up there often. It Acts as a place to think for him. He can see the city and this functions as a constant place for us to see the persistent change of Montreal and a place for Waqi to reflect and give the reader monologues. He also snoops on pertinent characters and plot points here (I.e. Nic sneaking out of Alayne’s palce). The only other time we see other cahcaters on the roof are; the final scene with Alayne, the Dep owner saying bye before venturing off into the snow to die. Think of other times that could be pertinent to have someone up there with him, but don’t make it too much. Maybe one more. The roof should ne Waqi’s place of respite, besides the final scene with Alayne, she shouldn’t invite anyone up there. This make’s it significant that he would invite her into his sanctum. When he approaches the commune with the invading anarchists, he sees the bikers set up on the roof. The makes him know that his personal space has been intruded upon and irks him a little.
  
  The 2rd time somone is on the roof is a family emeber. This should make it clear that their habit is to barge in on him and unload. That’s aprt of why he has moved away from them. It is not the only reason but it aggravates his desire to be away from them. Should it stop snowing at the end?
  
  An idea: He thinks it is raining but it is only the warmth og his own hot cheek that melts the snow. This is a more depressing endging. I guess the way to ansdwer this question is to as ka different one. What do I want to say with the end of this story?
  
  The new sibling triad is a good thing. Now is the time to weave it in with other story threads.
  
  Ideas:
  
  Waqi’s bro donates some money to Alayne’s circus. His sis being in the Plateau opens up possibilities of a new adventure chapter. Define the personality of the East side of mtl vs west. It’ll be tricky as Waqi is French and living on the English side. Perhaps he connects more with English due to his tourism industry past. When he meets the Brazlians he can state that he is “started out in the tourist industry” as an inside joke with himself. He could make multiple allusions to his past that the reader can feel he is in on. SOME OF THEM CAN ALSO ONLY BECOME CLEAR LATER on in the story.
  
  I should really give Ulyssses a chance.
  
  Plateau: Jews, Musicians, Jamhouse, vibrant, Franco nightlife quarter. What is her sister’s arc? We have one for bro. Sis: Decide to kill. Hvae a chance to rebuke her choice but declines. Ne condemned and die yourself due to the risk you took? Sis may be the reason that Dad has been caught again by Mum. She may be having her musician friends follow him, or bettter yet, have one of her friends pretend to like him and sleep with him to prove the point (with photo/video evidence). The daughter ends up conning the con-man. This will prove the smoking gun and hurt him and his position in the community. There is resolution to the decisions tha the sibling trio take, which differentiates it from the other 2 trios… or the other one involving Waqi is semi-solved. We know Anarch’s way leads to death, just like sis’s. But we don;t know if tame or run is better.
  
  ”We can always do better. That’s why there’s usually a tomorrow, until there isn’t” - Someone.
  
  Mayne Waqi could make time for Sis after his day at work.
  
  The ending and the book burning scene:
  
  What books does he burn? Which ones have spoken to me throughout my life: The Auto fo malcom X, Ibn Battuta bio (this has to be the chapter to bring it up after all!), Catchcer in the Rye, The Stranger, Crime and Punishment, Ulysses, Satanic Verses. He almost has a 4 th wall breaking moment where he mentions all the literary influences that hae gone into the book. (Also mention Heather O-Neill). The chpater will be called “Le Quartieme Mur”. Waqi will reflect on his own trials and tribulations, framed around the plots of his fave novels. WE will also frame his time as a hermit with the archetype of a shipwreck stroy (find a fmaous one and extrapolate). This will give the right feel of severity and yet still be in line with the literary theme.
  
  How do the great works and events of Western Civ fall in line with the Tame, Kill, Run theme? Of course in many ways. Mention historical events and works but be sure to tie a string between each of them and the overall theme.
  
  Ideas for Tame:
  
  Colonialsm, Birth of cities/civ from hunters/gatherers, the great teachers/philosophers of eras (tie in to bums), great inventions.
  
  Ideas for Kill:
  
  Great battles/wars, brutal people, great heros, famous myths/legends, the great fears of mankind.
  
  Ideas for Run:
  
  Great escapes, people who broke the wheel like Khalessi (maybe inventions goes here), people who turned their back to adversity, Hamlet, stories of renegades, refugees, exiles.
  
  Malcolm X’s life follows this trajectory:
  
  Tame: A black man doing his thing with the avenues he has in America: Dirty Red
  
  Kill: Nation of Islam
  
  Run: Post-Nation and Assassination
  
  Who else may fit into all 3?
  \
• Napolean: childhood, Emperor, exile
  \
• Hannibal? - Howward Hughes - Saddam
  
  May run the risk of falling into the Great Man trope.
  \
• Do some research into women that would fall into this archetype. May not find perfect matches, especially with the same chronology. That’s not the point. This sums up the great frame of my story. Now, how do I end it?
  Ideas:
  
  Sometimes, no matter what you try, the monster eats you.
  
  The monster dies of old age
  \
• Don’t introduce another action that the hero can do, that completely deflates your theorem. What do you really believe? There is no universal right action. It depends on context. Just don’t think that yyou are instrumental in affecting the monster. Odds are, it will go on being, regardless of you. As Jung said, “people don’t have ideas, ideas have people.” The incantations that birthed humanities’s monsters have long sine whisped into the wind, yet the monsters remain. Expand on this statement: the bones of the sorcerors have dusted and blown off into the same said wind, yet the monsters remain. Going further, Our worst creations. Intangible and ethereal, will long outlive any one of us, and they are to be respected. THUS, THE title of the book is ironic.
  
  Great Works - yes but the focus of the book is the bad deeds.
  
  Of The Western World: Yes, but all of humanity is culpable.
  
  Is this deep/profound enough? It’ll have to do for now. Tie the magic in the beginning in with the monsters. They go together. Monsters are societal problems and magic is original sin. These two things have become more mystical in Waqi’s problems. This leap of faith is taken as a given by the people of this story. Very avant garde
  
  Need to do some research on historical events to support my Threeaction Theory.
  
  I’m having trouble justifying the “plopping” of magic near the beginning with the rest of the narrative. How do we reconcile this? Waqi thinks that the normal social and psychological monsters have been devolved and percolated enough to begin manifesting themselves in superantural ways as no w seems to be the case. This may also explain past, uncorroborated displays of monsters but this “remains unsibstantiated at time of printing.” Now this thought process/social theory jives with everything Waqi experiences and believes.
  
  Now, can I loop back to the ending? The weather gets better but his asexuality remains. Neither happening is the direct result of his actions. He just decided to do the best with what remained in his deck. That’s the lesson. Maybe the snow doesn’t need to stop after all. Maybe the rain is just his hot chrrk after all. This is to indicate he is “vital again.” - Key phrasing.
  
  Now: Will I pass the feminist test?
  
  Strengthen Char: Alayne, probably more sympathetic than Waqi. Does she talk to other women? - The Brazilian, Anarch when she threatens them, we hear about others. Is she in a position of power? Yes, she is key in her areas & then runs it once she takes over.
  
  Now, to strengthen Alayne’s char and arc:
  
  She has the disposition of a guardian/caretaker. Has trouble leaving lost causes/charity allone. Her arc is to stop caring for others more than herself. This involves leaving Waqi for Nic and transferring control of the circus to Gaston. (This is ironic as usually Waqi is the eastern pragmatist but now appeals to Alayne’s lost western romanticism to make her stay with him.)
  
  In the final days of Civilization, this couple decides to do what is best for each of them rather than what is utilitarian. What is Waqi’s personal victory/conclusion?
  \
• He learns to let go\
• Forget outward appearance in favour of inner health\
• Loosen attachment to material possessions\
• Make him have revelation that turns him into a prophet (?)
  
  That would be the biggest plot twist. That this book’s coaching and speaking to the reader is indicative of it being a religious text. This entire ordeal has been a test from “God” who doesn’t exist in the same capacity as in more traditional religions. Think this through long and hard before you commit. For starters, the first line.
  
  My idea of starting chapters with “On January 2 nd ,” works, but now I’d have to add “of the year of the storm.” The references to older cultural artefacts would make more sense/ akin to referencing the flood, or the old testament. The fable land would make more sense as it would function as a parable. The commune becomes Jerusalem and Waqi becomes Jesus. The last chapter would accomplish this after his apology to Alayne. He attains redemption.
  
  —-
  
  Maybe it’s too self-serving for Waqi to become Jesus. Maybe it should be Alayne instead. This would mean that Waqi is one of her disciples. A female prophet is more line with the idea of these events being the foundation of a new religion. Plus, the events of a prophet are usually documented by their followers rather than them directly. Plus, the insecurity demonstrated by Waqi would not jive with the voice of a modern day religious figure. This way, when he says things like he “isn’t worthy of Alayne’s love” the ending will put all of that into context.
  \
• If I go this route, it may make his impotence even less meaningful. It is some old testament level of inexplicable brutality. Did God do all this to him so he would get out of Alayne’s way? That’s super dark once we realize it’s a distinct possibility. Waqi’s acceptance of his situation and willingness to bow to Alayne makes him all that more heroic if we let this be the way the story ends. So, Alayne is a charitable, kind to a fault, and naive character. Her naivete and ability to deal with adversity is what she learns from Waqi. This is significant as he becomes the “Kill advocate” in his help in the development of the prophet Alayne.
  
  The events (magical) of the story have been about Alayne from the beginning, so that is a bait and switch I pull, making the story more male-centric than the universe wants it to be. Is my reader going to stick it out long enough to enjoy this twist? I need to make the book (and narrator) aware of it’s male-centrism and poke fun at it. How else does her story resemble that of a prophet?
  
  She has a flock: Initially just the circus, but more and more people come to the commune over time.
  
  She is generous: The commune is her idea. She sticks it out with Waqi as long as she can. She also as done many charitable things throughout her life without a push.
  
  She has a test of faith. The relationship, the loss of funding. She finds both solace and suffering in her relationship with Waqi. He is her Peter and Judas in one. A hotly contested religious figure in his own right. She has a battle to fight: How does she retain her angelic disposition in the face of a decaying world, while learning the new traits she needs in order to not only service herself, but bring everyone she can through adversity and end up at salvation on the other side. I like this new ending because it gives Alayne some plot, agency, and intrigue. This is what I needed to write a 3D female character. We should be willing to accept them after the fact and he provides us with great introspection. We feel sorry for him due to his divine punishment, yet we are mad at him for being so self-centred, yet we feel sorry for him due to his unfortunate upbringing.
  
  So this really has become the ultimate cuck story. I need to bathe in that and own it. This dude is the historian. So this is both a) the story of someone who’s not the main character in the larger scheme of things and b) the story of a historian who himself will never be the star by design. This is in contrast to Ibn Batutta, who was both a scholar and a star. When should I start peeling back the mask and paint Alayne as the prophet? Probably in earnest on the eve of the battle. So things appear more epic as Waqi makes his way back to it. (Refer to it as Mecca or Jerusalem). But we should get hints beforehand, just nothing to obvious to give it away.
  
  This gives the essay chapter about Alayne’s past much more importance. In the footnotes, one of the sources should be made up, and be named something about Alayne from the future (or “Foundations of BLANK NEW RELGION”)
  
  In the aftermath of the battle, the members of the commune have been through a lot, so they resort to borderline worship of Alayne and Nic in a subtle way to everyone except Waqi. He sees it, that’s what drives his hermit life and the thoughts that accompany it. He acts as a kingmaker for Alayne the prophet in a way. This also makes Waqi a much more tragic figure which helps make him all that more intriguing. This will also help explain his more resigned attitude (and forgiving attitude). When talking about the injustices he’s experienced in the past. We wonder how Waqi picked up so much knowledge when he’s obviously spent most of his free time womanizing and working. It’s because he’s become an ascetic since the events of the book. This ties in with my notion of looking back and laughing at who you were 5 years ago.
  
  Need to flesh out Alayne’s own circle of friends.
  
  Gaston is her right hand man at the circus - gay and capable, if a bit too much of a partier.
  
  She has a loser friend like Seb, but she doesn’t seem to have a contempt for her like Waqi does Seb.
  
  She also has her complicated relationship with Nic.
  
  She is an only child and her parents had immense trouble conceiving. They read every book, prayed to every God, and consulted every shaman before she was conceived. They joke about which cocktail of deities conspired to finally make her up.

Plot Map

• Petit Mort\
• Go to work\
  • Describe neighbourhood\
  • Meet Sebastian and hint at problem (or jump right in)\
  • Describe Urban Planning\
• Go Meet Alayne\
  • Describe her job\
  • Describe his love of her\
  • Describe her quest for a raise\
• Go to Jazz Show\
  • Describe their social life. How they live together now.\
  • Meet tourists\
  • Describe Montreal\
• Walk in Old Port\
  • Continue conversation on Montreal\
  • Fall in love with Alayne all over again\
• Stop The Passion\
  • They get home and seduction begins\
  • Describe their home as cozy\
  • She tries. He stops her and confesses\
  • She reals and tries to understand him\
  • They fall asleep still unresolved\
• In A Daze\
  • Commutes to work and reads about something interesting\
  • Tries to get his mind off of the night before\
• Neighbourhood Bar\
  • Hasn’t gone home from work the following day\
  • Talks with the locals and we flesh out the neighbourhood gang\
  • Invites Sebast out?\
  • STM Driver. Downstairs neighbours x2. Bartender\
  • This could be a lively scene\
  • Doesn’t divulge specifics but get’s convinced to go home that night\
• Weekend Date\
  • Couple goes out together and tries to make sense of their new normal\
  • They decide that they love each other and will try to make it work\
• Hungover At Work\
  • Notices something wrong with Sebastian\
  • Invites him to the storytelling function\
• Storytelling Function #!\
  • Waqi greets everyone he knows\
  • One story from a new character\
  • Then Waqi goes up and explains his diplomat childhood\
• Late Night Eats\
  • Interesting small talk and exposition on Waqi’s story\
  • Sebast reveals he is suicidal\
• Mutual Masturbation\
  • Waqi and Alayne try out a solution to their problem\
  • It works for her, but she tries to up the ante and he gets mad
    
    Rough:
    What is the STM driver’s story?\
  • There is a secret cult amongst the STM. A religious one… too Pynchon
    What are the neighbour’s stories?\
  • One has to be an extreme racist of course, but in a creative way
    Need more interconnected characters
    Need more at stake
    Think freeform and don’t leave anything off the table
    There is another community organization that is living. Squatters that are living through the winter. When the snow gets too high they change locations and cause havoc.
    The Underground City is still open for a while and people shop there.
    Alayne’s work friends. Cute guys amongst them. There is tension within Waqi.
    
    
    Combine Other Story Ideas:
    Have the Uber guy tell 3 stories about his increasingly dubious uber life - perfect for this
    Waqi’s childhood stories are also another subplot that he reminisces about\
  • Born in Tangiers - could say he is a reincarnation of Ibn Batutta\
  • Dad was a diplomat and all that involved - different countries, schools, problems\
  • Became persona non grata for some reason\
  • Family fled to Montreal, Canada to make a life for themselves. He loves Canada now\
  • The Ronald Reagan story can be something that Sebast comes up with
    
    Storytelling Sequences:\
• Uber 1\
• Waqi as a son of a diplomat\
• Uber 2\
• Sebastian’s Ronald Reagan story - told in a sloppy but entertaining day - plays off his newness to the role.\
• Uber 3\
• Waqi reflecting on his current predicament
  
  Does this have legs? Yes
  Am I concerned with length? Not immediately. Write the very best you can first and foremost.
  Is the story good? The main concept has been shown interest by friends. The concept is never as important as how you execute.
  Is the storytelling device a cop-out? Maybe… but how can you make it good? Make the character’s good and make them participate. Call and response type storytelling. Unique atmosphere.
  
  Subplots:
  The Depanneur
  The Anarchists
  Sebastian’s Dating and Depression
  Nicolas’ Rush To Make A Mark - Maybe\

The Old Neighbour’s Racism
The Building and Support of the Commune
Montreal’s Society Crumbling
The Past:
Waqi’s Past Romances
Waqi’s Parents Lives (includes present cameo)
Rockey’s Uber (or STM) stories
The Gang At The Bar
The Bohemian’s Art
Waqi and Alayne’s Dates

Tentative:
The travels of Ibn Batuta
Waqi’s Dream City of Montreal
Side story told in parellel?

This story needs to have a rhythm my own.

Elements:
Using dashes to create new words powerful in their description and brevity
Using slang from Montreal and hip-hop
Creating a rhythm in my writing - say paragraphs out load after you’re done.




What are you trying to get with the Ibn Battuta to his own life flashbacks?
Don’t make too much of these. Use Battuta very infrequently. Only refer to Batutta during that first metro ride. And MAYBE once more. Use his own life to its full advantage. They have a parellel in Tangier, and maybe a couple of other places in the middle east. Leave it at that.
\

Ibn Battuta is another explorer like Waqi was in his youth. He got turned off of exploration in favour of comfort and routine when his father’s incident happened. The events of the story give him the utmost extreme feeling to being sedentary, so he knows he wants to explore again.
\

He didn’t like the feeling of not having a home when he was abroad.



Walk to Work
At work - tells signs of trouble from Sebastian. Offers help absent mindedly
Walk to Alayne’s work - ibn battuta’s exodus from Tangier
Drinks at Lescalier
Tourists
Bed - Confession
Saturday Morning - Depanneur - trying best to avoid Alayne at home
Flashback to childhood in Tangier
Sees the anarchists
Meets Sebastian in not the best mood
Night at the Bar - the bohemian, the uber driver, \

The Relationship

The Relationship:

This will be the key plot driver and key relationship in the story. It HAS to be perfect for the book to be good.

They go from a polite, communicative couple to
A strained, motivated couple to
A fed-up, disillusioned couple.

Plotlines:

Waqi and Alayne:
Sexual Experimentation
Communication

Waqi:
Handling Demasculation
Theoretical to Tangible*

*tied to a larger statement that the theoretical is a 1 st world luxury the people of snowy Montreal no longer have time for.

Alayne:
Growing Assertiveness
Conscientous to Self-centred

Dynamics:
\

Sex:

It starts out dynamic, in a way that we are not privy to since we enter the story right as this period ends. She liked it but we are led to question whether Waqi did, and whether it was merely idealised in retrospect by the couple.

The problem is initially hidden by Waqi, but he resolved rather quickly to discuss it and bring it into the open. He feels the change in his disposition to be powerful, defined and absolute. This means it must be discussed. He is also confident that Alayne will understand and be receptive to his concerns.

He brings up his issue and Alayne is immediately supportive. She mentions trying to get opinions to understand it, but Waqi is embarrassed to tell other people, but knows it to be true about himself. She accepts it. They work out an understanding. He gets emotional when he asks if she will stay, but she says she loves him and that she will. They fall asleep together.

They try various methods of being intimate with little success.

The frustration ultimately leads to tension due to Alayne’s strong libido, which their situation ends up making her feel guilty about. She works up the courage to ask him for the affair. He bites back his anger and agrees to it, under pre-conditions.

The affair happens and he finds himself getting less and less OK with it. It haunts him for a while afterwards.

He confronts her about it once Nicolas moves in and his worst fears are confirmed. He is smug that he guessed it and betrayed by Alayne. They break up and she moves in with Nicolas.

Waqi ends up realizing that he misses her closeness. Not in a sexual way, but things like the smell of her hair and the shape of her toes. This is what he understands to be the remnants of his sexual side. He thinks about these things until one day his loins stir. He is surprised and shocked. This is the same day the sun shines through the window and spring comes.

He comes to understand that his sexuality is there within, but different from what he ever thought it was? Maybe

Communication:
\

They are always honest with each other, or appear to be. Waqi talks about thoughts he really has, but rationalizes them to not be fully formed, or serious enough to vocalize.

They discuss their problems and come to solutions, but they never argue. Waqi understands this as being a good thing, but in reality she never argues due to her disabling meekness. She mentions that she needs to be more assertive, but the signals do not reach Waqi. He takes the signals to mean that she needs to be strong ot the outside world, but not towards him. This is because he is feeling a profound sense of weakness due to his sexual reality, and cannot fathom that she could perceive him as overpowering in his current state.
\

Alayne:

She is understanding and receptive and willing to be flexible to Waqi’s needs. When she presents an option that would be flexible to her needs, Waqi ends up ultimately not being able to return understanding in kind.

By the end, it turns out her flexibility and cooperation are rooted in the same personality traits that make her unable to ask for a raise at work. She works hard but undervalues her contributions and questions her worth too much. This is changed when Nicolas motivates her and sees this problem in her and tries to snap her out of it.

Waqi: “You like him because he tells you what you want to hear. That’s what pimps do. They flatter you.”

Alayne: “No, I like him because he tells me what’s wrong with me. It’s difficult to hear, but it’s now unbearable to ignore. And… what’s wrong with me is why we have to finally end this."

"What about what’s wrong with me?"

"If I were someone else, that would have been enough to end this long ago.”
\

Waqi:

He must try to resolve the idea that a man can still be a man without a useful penis.

He does not have full appreciation for the duress he is putting Alayne under by withstanding his new sexual reality.

He idealizes Alayne too much. He does not fully understand that she is capable of doing bad things just like all people. Just like him. He is very used to being in his head all the time, and she is more concerned with practical things. In their new world he slowly find his theory to be of less use, and starts to learn to value her practicality. This serves as a valuable lesson for him, but fools him into thinking it means good things for their relationship. It is actually just done by her due to survival, and still feels like her giving with not getting as much in return.

Waqi’s thought: Alayne could have done well using the more brief “I give and I give” before walking down and then up the stairs to Nicolas’.

Characters

Waqi

Name: Waqi Umra
Age: 26
Occupation: Urban Planner
Education: McGill

Bio:

Waqi was born in Tangier Morocco to a diplomat and a housewife. After living in the city of intrigue through his early years, his father gained a position with the foreign office. From then on, he went to see the places that the foreigners visiting his city told him they were from. He imagined seeing them waiting in doorways in the cities, but that didn’t occur. During his adolescence, his father became persona non-grata on a foreign visit and was given 24 hours to leave. His father was caught having an affair with the daughter of a foreign official. The family had to go home to Morocco to face punishment. Their passports weren’t cancelled so they could fly home. His father flew them to Canada instead, where he applied for asylum. The government could not deport him, as he had been overcharged with treason, which carried the death penalty, which Canada had abolished. The overcharge was the result of a friend that his father still had in office, doing him an unorthodox favour.

In Canada, Waqi was enrolled in the last year of high school and his parents fought constantly. His mother stayed as that was the Islamic thing to do. They went to the Pakistani mosque as word had spent to the Moroccan one as to what his father had done. Waqi was intelligent and composed, a result of being educated at the best international schools on the Moroccan government’s dime. Waqi excels at being social, having to make friends over and over again in various parts of the globe. He is also used to leaving people behind after a time. He always excelled in school and went to University for Urban Planning, despite cries of a small job market from his parents. He always thought impractically.

He hit the lottery getting a job in the city he lived in. Most of his colleagues had to relocate to find work. His hallmark is the impracticality of his designs. His boss loves his vision, and even though Montreal would never dream of building the projects he dreams up, designers from all over the world take inspiration from them and implement them in far flung places. He is proud of this and plans on one day seeing his hand in these far off places, but ultimately likes his routine too much to travel abroad.

He now lives alone in Sainte-Marie, playing host to colleagues from his urban planning days when they are back in town, or friends from the many International Schools from his adolescence. He has introduced the city, and himself, many times to newcomers. He has a routine in his life that he enjoys very much.

He has never had a problem romancing women due to his charisma and good looks. He has been called a womanizer due to his pattern of multiple short-term lovers, but he chalks that up to the prevalent hook-up culture of his generation. Now, he has fallen in love with Alayne and they have moved in together. This is a big step in his life and his mother is pleased. However, his inexplicable sexual issues arise a month after the move-in. This is where our story begins.



Behaviour:
Thinks impractically.

Arcs:
- Asexuality - it actually comes as a surprise to him too.
\

Alayne

Name: Alayne Nadeau
Age: 23
Occupation: Assistant Coordinator

Alayne was born and raised in Laval, Quebec. Her mother is a radio personality on Radio Quebec and her father was a professor of Urban Planning at McGill. She met Waqi when she came in to see her father in his office one day. She was attracted to him as is common. They had begun to converse over the phone, but Waqi had asked her father’s permission before seeing her on a first date. This class appealed to her, and his manner seemed to emanate from an older world.

She was raised in a forward thinking household, which lead her to enter a life of charity. She has developed a complex of feeling guilt at her relative comfort and privilege compared to others. This comes into conflict with her great work ethic, and her inclination to get compensated for going above and beyond. Her current salary restricts her from doing everything she wants to. She wants to own a home and run it in an eco-friendly way. She also wants to start a co-operative housing and living centre.

She wants to get a raise and drop the “assistant” from her job title.

When Waqi becomes asexual, she must decide if she still wants to have a relationship. She is hesitant to write the relationship off just because of a lack of sex, but still has difficulty being deprived of her urges.

Her side-arc: She cares for the old guy? She starts a triage centre. She spirals towards a breakdown through guilt and responsibility. She slowly takes on more and more responsibility as she doesn’t see another choice. Waqi is more of a dreamer and less willing to get his own hands dirty in the reality. She asks him to come up with plans for the snow community and he does, but she is the one who begins to put it into practise.



She is an apologist, for everyone, including the old racist guy and Sebastian. She is mad at Waqi and the rest for killing him. This is after Waqi is finally coming to terms with the act he committed. Her disgust with him throws him over the edge and he lashes out at her. Be careful here, make sure she isn’t protrayed to have her head up her ass. She needs to seem as if the break-up is emancipating and well deserved for her. She shouldn’t feel as guilty as she has in the past.
\

Sebastian

Name: Sebastian Bouvier
Age: 28
Occupation: Urban Policy Analyst

Waqi is amazed the man doesn’t go mad, as his job consists of filing and reading reports. He is at the extreme end of routine from Waqi.

Sebastian has very little social tact and often utters blunt comments.


His Arc: He has been a nice guy to Waqi for a long time, that’s why Waqi isn;t wary or hesitant to offer his help. The picture we are painted of Sebast during our first meeting is initially subverted by his admittance of suicide at the end of that scene, and his ultimate confession over drinks in the next.
\

• Confession\
• Rehearsal at being better\
• Date\
• Being a creep at the silo\
• Moving into the Commune\
• Depression\
• Violence Towards Nicolas\
• ???\
• Maybe potentially murdered in Waqi’s absence\
• He could die in his attempt to kill Nicolas\
• Maybe Waqi takes him with him and he dies in the cave-in - more clean for the plot\
• Maybe he walks off into the snow like the depanneur owner, and that makes Waqi even more willing to do it.
  
  3 fates: choose one that best fits your message.
  
  He has his conceptions of women changed, then get’s depressed once he realizes the word will never be the same as before. Waqi mentions that perhaps in the new world order he can rise to a position of attractiveness. He just needs to figure out the new currency. Sebast takes this to mean that the new currency is violence and brutishness, and thus lunges out at Nicolas.
  
  If he dies upon his assault on Nicolas, that will make sense, and will fall in line with the old man dying, and the depanneur owner’s fate. Maybe Waqi can participate in Sebastian’s murder as a communal self defence. Or, the building breaks apart and he falls into the frozen underworld - that’s how Waqi will dwell on it during his journey past the gates of the commune.
  \

Nicolas

This character is a homewrecker but must be hard to hate.

He works with Alayne at the NGO.

He is hyper-masculine, but not a womanizer. He has been working on reinventing himself for years, from a version of himself that was like Sebastian.

Sebast, Nic and Waqi represent 3 points on a progression towards Waqi’s newfound idea of Ubermench.

Ugly but Real, Atractive but Fake, Unattracted and Real.

He may be a lot more careful about how he speaks, and speak very infrequently. He may also get all charismatic around women, but not give a fuck around men.

The argument between Waqi and Alayne: You had to go and fuck the one guy that would hurt.

Alayne: You thought I could just find some guy off the street? You realize how dangerous that is?

Sebastian’s attack of Nicolas ends up putting Waqi and Alayne against each other. Their tension is almost ideological, with each getting closer to a different archetype of manhood.

Nicolas: Headstrong, confident in his world view, takes action, not compassionate or conscientious, brave, less intelligent but not dim-witted.

Depanneur

Make the depanneur function as somewhat of a little shop of wonders.

The beer fridge has all sorts of fun flavours and brands hiding behind corners. The selection gets smaller and smaller and Waqi’s relationship runs out of possibilities.

The owner is a shrewd businessman who constantly raises his prices as the snow crisis worsens. He is nice to Waqi but cuts no deals.

The anarchists circle outside his shop and eventually rob him. They leave him beaten inside, when Waqi comes down to bring him to the commune. He stays for a little while until he becomes depressed from being idle and divorced from the monotonous depanneur life he has lived for so long. He walks away one day, into the snow storm, presumably to commit suicide.

The Anarchists:

They are initially squatting in a vacant lot until the snow hits the 2 week mark. Then, they force their way into the community pool building, which has closed down and they stick their flags on it and run it into disrepair rather quickly.

They try their best to take over the neighbourhood. When they take their turn on the commune, they fight back in a smart way. Nicolas ends up being pivotal in their defence. I’m not sure if the depanneur owner will be there when the battle happens.

The arc of the anarchists ends with them moving on to reave somewhere else. The battle between the two groups must not be too standard, but true to the tone of the book.

The anarchists are not named. Waqi names them based on their appearances and notes observations about them that lead to character development from afar.

The Owner: He is a gruff philosopher. He says (seemingly) nonsense to his customers. They usually just ignore him, but Waqi tries to listen to him and take his words to heart. The man is still awkward and says many inappropriate things to Waqi. He has no family to speak of, and running the shop has become the thing that keeps him hinged.

Other Charcters

Waqi’s Mum
Waqi’s Dad

Other Neighbourhood Inhabitants\

• Old Racist Guy\
• STM Driver\
• Bohemians\
• Another couple?\
• Anarchists\
• Depanneur Owner
  
  There may be an arch between the Depanneur owner and the anarchists.
  
  Tourists
  
  Waqi’s Boss
  
  Girl at the Bar

Tunisia

What events shaped Tunisia during the time Waqi grew up. What is unique about the Tunisian worldview, and the Tunisian immigrant experience.

Draft Archive

Petit Mort

On January 14 th , in the evening, Waqi was dreading having to penetrate Alayne. She was spread eagle on top of the worn out comforter she’d moved in with. They did all their sexing on the top side and then slept underneath it, to keep sanitary. Waqi once suggested they lay a couple of towels down to better contain their stickiness. Alayne said it felt like playing sexy Twister, but not in a fun way. The current game was the waiting one, standing over her, with his belt still skewered shut through the slimmest punch hole available.

”Oh, you want to watch me?” she said.

No, he didn’t.

Alayne had her eyes closed and Waqi didn’t voice any demeure, so she licked her playing fingers shiny and instrumented for his audience. Her choir chimed in on the cue of his belt buckle finally slapping the hardwood. Waqi stepped out of his pant puddle and leaned forward onto the edge of the bed. One of her feet rocketted upwards, so that the tip of her biggest toe could graze back and forth along the grain of his arm hair. From this distance Waqi could focus his gaze past the performance, to the artist. She truly was une ange sans faille . She deserved to be fulfilled.

Damn him.

He kept on her face and hoped everything below that latitude would shift into place without mind paid. The first thrust jutted into her pelvic bone, his diffidence saving him from injury. They both let out sighs, his of clumsy and hers of tease. Alayne slipped a hand between the chasm made of their chests, serpenting down until she took caring hold of him. She righted his trajectory and pulled him inwards.

Getting his dick dirty was the worst part. Afterwards, he could stomach the motions, resigning himself to already being soiled. Thinking about it made him shiver. She felt it, and started rubbing her hands on his back, never long enough to actually warm the skin anywhere in particular. She was always sweet with him.

His thoughts had almost given him up. He diverted to kissing her. Her lips, cheeks and then neck. That was Waqi’s happiness in all of this. He kept their lips locked as she grasped his hindside to maestro their rhythm. She insisted on quickening. He served.

He served until his body died un petit mort once again.

Lying beside her, Waqi smiled into her sideways gaze, relieved to have a hands length between their bodies.

”How do you feel?” she said.

”Good,” he said.

She fell asleep first like always. Waqi lay awake, disturbed. How many times could he die before he died for real? It would never stop, unless he did something. Rather, until he stepped aside. How would that go down? He wanted her here, too. That’s what made it absolutely impossible.
\

Think think think. Health and mind first. Your heart will still pump blood broken.

He decided. He could never bear to do all of that, ever again.

Outside the window it had started snowing in Montréal, and it would never stop.

Fifth Finger

Alayne’s weekdays started and ended an hour later than Waqi’s which made getting ready alone a meditation he had begun to cherish. Snow had settled spotty on the pavement by the time he stepped out of his third floor balcony in the morning onto the fire escape. He stepped down past the Drapeaus,’ with their fleur de lille hanging limp on its flagpole, a reinforcement of white helping to crowd out the blue. Mr. Papineau’s balconies on the way down the spiral fire escape of the triplex. Mr. Papineau still had his barbecue chained up around the third step up from the street, owing to not not having a fence around his back porch. Waqi had twisted his ankle on the chain last August, one night while drunk.
\

I thought I liked sex.

The back alley behind the triplexes of Rue Sussex opened up directly across the street from Parque Felicitation, with its tall-oak lined perimeter. Waqi crossed over to walk alongside them, already shedded and died for the year. The oldest, thickest ones wore belts of orange spray paint, marked to be cut down. Frost in September had warded off the city workers and earned them one last sleep. Hopefully none decided to give up on a heavier branch while he walked underneath.

Looking down past the bends in his brogue loafers, snow was still floating to an end leisurely, filling in the cracks on the sidewalk it had yet to. The ground temperature was well below zero now so it would accumulate. If it turned to ice it would play accessory to the usual punishment inflicted unto the roads of this province, expanding until it cracked the smaller veins into bigger ones. Rinse-repeat and those would become craters deep enough knock hubcaps loose off cars, and send them flying towards the necks of the cyclists commuting parallel.
\

Maybe it’s my diet. I eat like shit.

The metro saved Waqi from such a fate throughout the 300-plus days it operated without major incident each calendar year. Montréal’s underground network was run by a capable outfit know as la société. Four interconnected, and coloured-but-only-on-maps, fingers stretched and bent underneath to palm the city’s urban core. They didn’t reach everywhere demanded of them… but Waqi didn’t need to begin flogging himself until he actually got to work. He crossed over at Rue Ontario to where one of the fingers broke dirt and formed an opening for Station Frontenac.

Inside, past the turnstiles, on the floor, a bum sat cross-legged with dirty medusa hair and a violin. His playing compelled Waqi to stop and listen and wish he could recognize classical pieces as readily as Bowie. This particular movement made him feel like Napoleon stopping short, overlooking the now unreachable spires of Moscow. He clapped at the end with citizens bumping past him and the bum kept his head down, paused. Waqi found two loonies to part with, and lobbed them in a coffee cup set up for the purpose. The bum was lifting the violin to sit under his chin once more when Waqi started again in the direction of Agrignon - the way to downtown.

Three stops to Berri-UQAM, where the fingers crossed . There, Waqi jogged up to the emptier car just ahead as the next train on the ligne orange slowed to a stop. Aboard, after some more mind paid to the bum, no, the violinist, the train chimed him out of his thoughts with the ritual call: Prochain station - Champ-de-Mars.’
\

Thinking in one language, and living in another. Whenever he became mindful, it was a novelty again.

He had the privilege of working at City Hall - an old, Second Empire’ style erection at the edge of Montréal’s even older port. It was from the balcony two floors above his cubicle that, in 1967, Charles De Gaulle had shouted to stir up an insurrection, like a blustery father-in-law. On the fourth floor, two potted ferns stood sentry, each on one side of the entrance to the

Département de planification urbaine de Montréal .

Sebastian was already in, the arms of a salt-caked petticoat embracing the back of his swivel chair. He peered up at Waqi’s face, tie-knot and pant cuffs, in that order. \

“Domestication looks good on you,” Sebastian said.

”Nothing’s changed,” Waqi said, de-coating and finding printouts of ridership demand volumes (by time of day) where he’d left them on his desk the day before.

”It’s been two months. Either one of you has changed, or you sleep in separate beds now, or you’ve killed her already,” Sebastian said.

He had this way about typing that sounded like what many squirrels nibbling on hard candy must’ve.

”We’re extremely compatible. We’ve only argued about my parents and where to put her each of her three guitars so far,” Waqi said.

”Want coffee? I’m going.” “Yes, thank you.”

Enough of that. It was time to recommence scheming a renovated Montréal for its descendants. When Waqi day-dreamed, he left the primary realm, on to one of impossibly fast cranes and instant concrete. Lately, his magic tools had helped him think up the consummate path for what he’d code-named The Fifth Finger.

He’d cheated to complete the hand. In reality, or, in fantasy, it was an extension of the ligne bleu east past Snowdon. It would burrow along the upper portion of burgeoning Notre-Dame-de-Grace, elevating over and past that grotesque-but-necessary rail yard, to finally link the suburbs of so-called West Island with Montréal proper. The first expansion of the metro since the era of the Olympics and Expo, when the city was setting the global pace in dynamism. Instead it came about-face and charted towards stagnation.

He decided on Thai for lunch, dropping fried bean sprouts on the printouts he took along with him. Sebastian joined him, asking for the pad sew without broccoli, and with the pad thai noodles instead.

”So, plans for the weekend?” Waqi said.

”Non. No plans.” Sebastian said, fully engaged with his food.

His balding spot was losing its gradient of thinning hair in favour of pure-bare skin.

The walk back to the office, to their cubicles, was quick paced.

Waqi had time near end-of-day to shift to his latest vanity mock-up. Every urban planner had a drawer full.

Highway 15 was sunken, not irreparably, but functionally. It ran at a lower elevation than the two streets that formed it’s shoulders, the whole thing resembling an open-top subway tunnel for cars. Waqi had the notion to build a suitable layer of foundation over it to seal it up proper. This would result in, if done to the utmost, 1 square kilometer of new building space along a busy corridor in the west end of the city. Limitations on building height would be required of course, but with modern materials it was hardly an insurmountable restriction. It was a first step in his envisioning of a densification of the urban core.

He’d forgotten his latest book at the desk so he picked it up on the way out: BLANK by BLANK.

Talk about Book as he heads to meet Alayne

He reads it on his way to meet gf. They go watch jazz and then meet new people at the bar who are tourists and do their best job to sell Montreal. “Everyone tells us we should’ve come in Summer.” Nonsense, that’s just a festival we put on for two months. This is how the city behaves when it’s in sweatpants and no one is around. They all walk down to the old port. The tourists thank them.

They get back home and Alayne jumps on Waqi. He holds back, sits her down and explains his asexuality. She tries to understand it and ultimately accepts it. They go to bed, tired, in each other’s arms. \

Walking to work. The trees marked and saved. Nature taking time to start snowing. Describe what will become rules for the snow.

NGO

Banque Imperiale had shifted their headquarters to Toronto when ministers started getting put into car trunks. In their hurry, they’d left a gorgeous BLANK building down at the old port that was now divvied up between many less monolithic businesses. Alayne worked for maybe the least business-like organisation listed on the digital directory in the crystal-chandeliered lobby.

Eliminate Malaria worked steadfast at eliminating malaria in Subharan Africa and Sub-Himilayan India.

At the elevator bank they were giving away cookies??

Waqi walks into the lobby and stops by a place where he knows they give away free stuff

Lynette, the receptionist, smiled at him. Remembering something, her shoulders shot up to her her ears and she mouthed sorry,’

“Hello,” Waqi said, hanging onto the o’ until Lynette collected herself to provide a more detailed report.

”She’s still in a meeting,” Lynette said.

”I’ll tell the limo to circle the block a few times,” Waqi said.

Lynette laughed, too hard.

In a chair across from her, he waited. The wait area had thin chairs U-shaped around two old McCleans on fibireboard table.
\

You can’t run a charity and have a nice office. Bad optics.

Alayne was in charge of BLANK. She did it well.

There she was, first to step out of the conference room three doors down the left hand wing. She mouthed sorry, hers loud enough to be heard by the clients (maybe) behind her.

”I can’t just ask for more money on my own merit. Everything thing I accomplish has to be weighted on how many lives we’ve saved and how many are left to save. There are lots.

They walk to the jazz bar, discussing her job and what she plans to do about it.

The musician knows them by face. They enjoy his stylings. A trio of tourists is at the bar and the bartender is giving them shit for not knowing French. Waqi intervenes and translates.

The set is over and the tourists are still rowdy. Alayne and Waqi slyly communicate to show them around.

Walking To The Old Port

Drinks After Work

Jimmy Larue and the band were revving into their nightly segue to Round Midnight when Waqi got thirsty.

At the bar a wide-headed man in blue plants was getting jostled by other men more eager to buy their beers. Waqi continued the cue behind him, noting the two-toned fade that was the hairline on the back of his neck. Blue Pants worked up the testicles to re-cut in front of a Mustache.

”Three Boreal Rouse please,” he said with a voice syruped in Spanish.

”Que’st e say,” said the bartender.

Then they both repeated their words a second time.
\

Oh he’s going to play that game.
\

Waqi clapped Blue Pants on his shoulder and smiled as he worked past him, while Mustache tabernacked.

(In French) “The gentleman wants three Boreals and I want 2 BLANKS. All on one bill."

"D’accord."

"I don’t speak French. Thank you my friend."

"Well he speaks English."

"Then why?"

"Even if he doesn’t - Three is a unit of count in both languages. It’s been a commonly understood concept since before the recorded history of the English or the French. And we’ve written it the same since the Arabic numeral system jihaded across the Medditerranean in the BLANKs. And Boreal Rousse is the brand name staring him in his the face on that draught tap.

Beers were set upon the counter in tows, and the bill was handed to Waqi.

”You only do that if you want to be a dick.”

He read the bill and inserted a credit card into the machine being handheld out for him.

”And if you don’t want a tip.”

Blue Pants grabbed all three beers in a triangle pressed together in a double-open-palm grip.

”Thank you again,” he said.

”De nada."

"I’m Portuguese,"

"Shit, that de nada’ was a gamble on my part. I’ll walk with you.”

It turned out to be three Brazilians seated with a head blocking any discernable view of Sammy BLANK’s cello wizardry. Shame. Blue Pants was actually Oliver. The blond streaked brunette in a light coat was Danielle and the goatee with an arm around her was Silvio.

They had an extra chair and Waqi mimed for Alayne to bring over one of theirs. A leather jacket sat down at the now-lone-chaired table right as she vacated. She repeated all three Brazilian’s names along with Waqi’s role call.

”What brings you to Montreal,"

"We’re on a vacation from work. We all work together."

"And you came to Montreal in winter?"

"Well we wanted to come to Canada, and this was the only time we could get off together. He’s our boss,"

"I’m the boss."

"Well I was being cheeky. You actually made… should I proclaim it the right call?”

Waqi thought and sipped before he spoke.

”A good call,"

"You made a good call. Montreal is a city that puts on a really slutty dress and shaves her armpits for 2 months of action every year. Then she takes off her make-up, puts on her sweatpants, and lets her gut hang out for the rest of the year. You get to see Madame in her true light."

"We see that around town. All the construction signs say something translated to “the dame, she is getting ready."

"Wait, you speak French and you let this poor guy get treated like a fool by the bartender?”


The tables get cleared and they dance a little bit.

They head to the Old Port. They stop when they see an alley with lights acting as a sea. They pretend to be swimming.

Alayne tells them a story about Montreal’s past. She confides that she used to be a tour guide.
\

Storytelling Night

Mutual Masturbation

Cuddling

Silo Rave

Cuckold

Climax Fight

Waqi and Alayne have a fight.

One day the sun punched a hold in the clouds bright enough to light up the greenhouse once again. The plants had long since died so all it did was illuminate the dried root fractals left exposed when Waqi re-appropriated the dirt to help patch in some holes in his apartment’s exterior wall.

The rays also sun-shined unto his own balcony window, wrapping around Mr. Drapeaus barbecue, now a submerged Ozymandias echoing more hopeful times.

The rays hit his face and woke him. The fires were out during the day to save ignition fuel for when he needed it during the still, deadly nights. The sun stimulated systems; digestive, nervous - to zeniths he hadn’t felt in some time. It gave him the energy to do what he was to next.

He took the fire escape to the roof, stopping only briefly to bask before scaling back down two units across to Alayne and Nicolas’ place.

Alayne answered his knock with a shout from what must’ve been the living room as follows: “I’ll leave some cans on your staircase."

"No. I want to talk to you."

"On the roof."

"Nicolas can watch at the top of the stairs. Just tell him to give me some space to think.”

Mafia

Waqi runs into his boss having lunch with the son of a mafia head. He decides to interrupt and make his case for the highway? I dunno yet. We just need a scene in this vein.

Trash

Outline 1

The End Times

Hell Freezes Over

Spring

It’s Just Snowing

Avoidance

Petit Mort

Work

Jazz

Brazilian Tour

Confession

Date Night

Reconcilliation

Appearances

Collapsing

Unemployed/Squatters

Fight or Flight

A New Hope

Fable 3

Trouble in Paradise

Nicolas Moves In

Too Much Snow

Society Falls Apart

Excursion

Fight or Flight

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