#be an uncontained cloud of gas

[burrbeast]

You ever just. Not want to be in a human body.

It's too restricting. I don't belong in this fleshy prison.

Must SHAPESHIFT.

[torahoes]

(IDOLiSH7) Good Good Games - PLAY GAME!! [English Translation]

Link to my Twitter post with the color-coded lyrics

Lyrics:

Good Good Games！

好奇心 × 無限大 = What!？

Koukishin × Mugendai = What!?

Curiosity × Infinity = What!?

抑えられない Joyful！オーライ！　 みんな集合！

Osaerarenai Joyful! oorai! Minna shuugou!

Uncontainable Joyful! Alright! Everyone, gather!

ムズカシイコト、考えない You know？ 常識、飛び越え C'mon！ We fly！

Muzukashii koto, kangaenai You know? joushiki, tobikoe C'mon! We fly!

Don't think about complicated things, You know? Leap and transcend common sense, C'mon! We fly!

Are you ready? You ready!?

Say! Lucky - Lucky - Happy - Lucky!

“ノリ” に乗り！　 ハメ外して Follow me！

"Nori" ni nori! Hame hazushite Follow me!

Ride on the “rhythm” Let loose and Follow me

ほら、どんどん Turn up！何度でも

Hora, dondon Turn up! Nando demo

Hey, Turn up more! Over and over

何度でも Hit it！ Count down！このまま party to party!

Hit it! Count down! Kono mama party to party!

Hit it! Count down! Keep it up and party to party!

想像以上 Going on！ 行こうぜ Dreamy gate

Souzou ijou Going on! Ikouze Dreamy gate

Going on beyond our imagination! Let's pass through the Dreamy gate

予定調和の日常 Boom！

Yotei chouwa no nichijou Boom!

A daily life of pre-established harmony Boom!

好奇心 × 無限大 = What!？

Koukishin × Mugendai = What!?

Curiosity × Infinity = What!?

Boom! Brothers! 3, 2, 1!

Welcome to こんな paradise　 もう、止まらないや！

Welcome to konna paradise Mou tomaranai ya!

Welcome to a paradise like this, there’s no stopping anymore!

Show you another world　 広がる　ダンジョン

Show you another world hirogaru danjon

Show you another world, it’s an expanding Dungeon

今、Knock Knock そのドア、叩け！

Ima, Knock Knock sono doa, tatake!

Now, Knock Knock, Knock on that door!

たまに oh, no　 当たって、砕けて！

Tamani oh, no atatte, kudakete!

Once in a while, oh, no, go for broke!

目指せ Higher than the clouds　 いや、もっと上へ！

Mezase Higher than the clouds Iya, motto ue e!

Aim higher than the clouds, no, even higher than that!

このメロディーズ　繋いでく Future

Kono merodiizu tsunaideku Future

The Future carries on these melodies

Hot Hot！楽しもう This moment

Hot Hot! Tanoshimou This moment

Hot Hot! Let's enjoy This moment

さぁ、もっと Go on！　 一緒ならば、Good Games！

Saa, motto Go on! Issho naraba, Good Games!

Come on, let's go on more! If we’re together, they’re Good Games!

Good Good Games!

Good Good Games!

Let's get together all the time！

“君とじゃなきゃ、意味がない”　 そんな瞬間　重ねてこう Right？

"Kimi to ja nakya, imi ga nai" Sonna shunkan kasanetekou right?

"It's meaningless if it’s not with you" Let's collect moments like those, right?

Now or Never ならば Now！

Now or Never naraba Now!

Now or Never means Now!

Yes or No? 間違いない Yes Yes All！

Yes or No? Machigai nai Yes Yes All!

Yes or No? There's no doubt, Yes Yes All!

(One life) “楽しむ” 以外の 選択肢などはない！

(One life) "tanoshimu" igai no sentakushi nado wa nai!

(One life) Besides "enjoying yourself", there are no other options!

(Stand up) こんな生き方 誰も真似出来ない！？

(Stand up) Konna ikikata daremo mane dekinai!?

(Stand up) No one can imitate this way of life!?

どんどん　バージョンアップしてこう！

Dondon baajon appu shitekou!

Let's keep levelling up steadily!

待ってらんない！まだまだ party to party！

Matterannai! Mada mada party to party!

Can't keep waiting! Keep going and party to party!

不確かな　明日が　 照らすよ Dreamy way

Futashikana ashita ga terasu yo Dreamy way

The uncertain tomorrow illuminates the Dreamy way

敷かれたレール　そんなの Boom！

Shikaretareeru sonna no Boom!

A path paved by somebody else, that's just Boom!

Brothers! 3, 2, 1!

ずっと This is how we roll　 もう、止まらないや！

Zutto This is how we roll　 Mou, tomaranai ya!

This is how we roll all the way, there’s no stopping anymore!

We can make it through　 信じて　パッション

We can make it through Shinjite passhon

We can make it through, believe in the passion

まだ Knock Knock 失敗も恐れない

Mada Knock Knock, shippai mo osorenai

Still Knock Knock, don’t fear failure

むしろ run up！　スピード上げて

Rather run up! And increase the speed

Mushiro run up! Supiido agete

目指せ Higher than the clouds　 ほら、もっと上へ！

Higher than the clouds Hora, motto ue e!

Aim higher than the clouds, come on, even higher than that!

このリズム　紡いでく Drama

Kono rizumu tsumuideku Drama

The drama weaves this rhythm together

Hot Hot！迷わず Enter in

Hot Hot! Mayowazu Enter in

Hot Hot! Without hesitating Enter in

Go with the flow more どこまででも Good Games！

Go with the flow more Dokomade demo Good Games!

Go with the flow more Wherever we go, they’re Good Games!

カリスマ的プレイで Good Games

Karismateki purei de Good Games

Good Games with our charismatic play

どんなステージも　楽勝 でしょう！

Donna suteeji mo rakushou deshou!

Every stage will be an easy victory, won’t it!

Always go crazy! We're the finest!

Never stop！　一気に　フィナーレ、 飾れ Yeah！

Never stop! Ikki ni finaare, kazare Yeah!

Never stop! Grace the finale in one go, Yeah!

高らかに　響かせよう　さぁ Boom！

Takaraka ni hibikaseyou saa Boom!

Let it resound loudly, now, Boom!

好奇心 × 無限大 = What！？

Koukishin × Mugendai = What!?

Curiosity × Infinity = What!?

Boom! Brothers! 3, 2, 1!

Welcome to こんな paradise　 もう、止まらないや！

Welcome to konna paradise Mou tomaranai ya!

Welcome to a paradise like this, there’s no stopping anymore!

Show you another world　 広がる　ダンジョン

Show you another world hirogaru danjon

Show you another world, it’s an expanding Dungeon

今、Knock Knock　 そのドア、叩け！

Ima, Knock Knock sono doa, tatake!

Now, Knock Knock, Knock on that door!

たまに oh, no　 当たって、砕けて！

Tamani oh, no atatte, kudakete!

Once in a while, oh, no, go for broke!

目指せ Higher than the clouds　 いや、もっと上へ！

Mezase Higher than the clouds Iya, motto ue e!

Aim higher than the clouds, no, even higher than that!

このメロディーズ　繋いでく Future

Kono merodiizu tsunaideku Future

The Future carries on these melodies

Hot Hot！楽しもう This moment

Hot Hot! Tanoshimou This moment

Hot Hot! Let's enjoy This moment

さぁ、もっと Go on！　 一緒ならば、Good Games！

Saa, motto Go on! Issho naraba, Good Games!

Come on, let's go on more! If we’re together, they’re Good Games!

Good Good Games!

Good Good Games!

[dolly-nova]

Faith blinked a few times as she sat up, not remembering when she fell asleep or how she ended up in the position she did. As the memories flooded back to her even with her eyes still groggy and blurry, she let out a sudden breath and felt a small flutter in her chest. A heart palpitation, but what from? Had they released a gas into the air while everyone was asleep? There was no way of telling what time it was with such a gray sky that was even casting a dimming shadow over the entire garden.

It took a few more seconds and a harsh eye rub for Faith to realize that it was no shadow and there weren’t any gray clouds, but everything had been completely depleted of color. Faith quickly tried to wake up Carina where she lay beside her, trying to speak and snapping her mouth shut instantly when she realized absolutely no sound was coming out. There was no noise at all around them, no slight breeze or commotion from the castle. Was it like this everywhere? It was going to drive Faith crazy, to see nothing but black and white and to be trapped in silence like this.

The forest was so noisy and dense with color that there was surely no way to completely erase it, she was certain. The girl’s restlessness was uncontainable and she immediately popped up, ready to try to go into a different sector as soon as Carina was awake enough to understand. 

@carinaminuet

[pjbehindthesun]

chapter 1: bears, bourbon, and the boyfriend

Sat, June 9th, 1990

I breathe a sigh of relief as I turn my car off the highway and onto the quiet back road that leads to my favorite hiking trail up in the Northern Cascades. A good hour left on the drive still, but at least this is the peaceful part. Not much relaxes me more than watching civilization recede into the rearview mirror. It’s like dying a little death, seeing the sights and sounds of human disturbance get fewer and farther between, like a heartbeat slowing to a stop on a monitor, until I’m the only person left, with only the wilderness providing background noise like a flatline.

I can’t help but imagine Alex in the passenger seat. Here’s the point in the conversation where he would grumble something about my morbid, misanthropic tendencies, if he were here. Of course, he isn’t here… hiking isn’t really his thing. For what felt like the millionth time, he’d agreed to come along and then bailed on my way out the door. On my way out of town, I’d called him from the lab, where I had a few loose ends from the week to tie up, to try and cajole him one last time. It didn’t go well.

“Are you sure? I can come back and get you, I’m almost done here, I could just swing back home and –”

“– nah, that’s okay, just go.”

“I was just really looking forward to this, Alex.”

“You’ll still have fun! You’ll have more fun out there without me, honestly, you know I hate it.”

“It’s just, I have my trip coming up soon…”

“Right…”

“…and I was just hoping we could spend some time together –”

“– but that’s my fucking point! WHY can’t we do that here?!”

“Hey, don’t you fucking shout at me.”

“Why do I have to drive out to the middle of nowhere and trudge up a fucking hill to spend time with my girlfriend? What the fuck’s wrong with our apartment?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it, but don’t you get bored?”

“Do you? … do you?”

“I mean… not of you, but… Jesus, I just wanted to spend some quality time –”

“– yeah and it only counts if it’s your fucking idea of quality time, not mine.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Just go on your fucking Bataan Death March, I’ll see you tonight.”

He hadn’t slammed the receiver down, but I had still flinched at the click. My idea of quality time, not his. That much was true. His idea of a quality weekend is unplugging the phone from the wall and playing video games around the clock. It’s how he has always wanted to unwind, and I spent countless weekends in college curled up next to him on the little bed in his dorm room with my homework (and the occasional joint out the window) instead of my boyfriend. Since we moved to Seattle after graduation last summer, the room has changed and so have the games – a little less Super Mario, a little more Castlevania – but the rest of the scene has stayed pretty static.

Static. It never bothered me before. For four years, that was my norm. Getting stoned and fucking around in the dorm room felt like what we were supposed to do in college. And I have no objections to getting stoned and fucking around as a theoretical adult, but this particular pastime is wearing thin. Do I even need to be present for his version of quality time?

I’m being a little unfair. I mean, he always turns his attention back to me eventually, and it’s not like I need to be the center of his existence… he’s such a good guy, really. I just wish it wasn’t this difficult to get him to meet me halfway. I can probably count on both hands the number of times I’ve prevailed on him to come camping or hiking with me over our five years together. Maybe even one hand, come to think of it. It just sucks. I love him, and I want so much for him to share in some of the things that make me happy. But I’ve never met anyone more at war with nature than him. I can’t get him to see the beauty of it with me.

I scowl and lean on the gas. The Rabbit does its honest best to keep up, but not without the same precarious wobble it always has at speeds above 60. Bless its heart.

Right before the end of the paved road, I turn into the gravel lot marking the trail head. How long has the car been quiet? Small Change must have run its course in the tape deck a while ago, so there goes my brooding soundtrack. The Rabbit bounces its way over the uneven ground and comes to a halt under the tree I usually park beneath. My jaw clenches at the sight of another car. Shit, please tell me the tourists aren’t coming out here now. I’ve been to this trail a lot over the last year and have never seen anyone else. This, of course, being the basis of its appeal.

I roll up the window and hop out, gathering a wind-tangled mass of hair up into a topknot and pulling on my day pack. I take a deep breath, leave Alex’s ghost in the car, and set off down the dark, dense trail. There have been times over the last year that I’ve missed the mountains back east, all ancient and sleepy and soft, but the comically overgrown plant life and violent skylines of the Pacific Northwest are hard to argue with.

I slowly wind my way up through the forest, gladly losing myself on the walk. Soon, I hit the series of switchbacks that signals the approach of the lookout at the top of the mountain. This is my favorite part of the trail. The trees open up to the left and there’s a partial view of the valley. Down the slope from my spot on the trail, there’s a cluster of burned stumps of giant old trees, the scars of a long-ago forest fire that haven’t yet been overwritten by new growth.

This is just one of those stupid fights every couple has. We’ll fix it when I get home. We always have.

Once I hit the start of the rocky cliff that holds the mountain views I came for, I set down my pack and kneel on the trail to rummage around for my beat-up stainless steel flask of bourbon. No sooner than I lay my hands on it, though, do I spot a tendril of smoke winding up from behind a large rock about twenty feet ahead. Shit, a rocky outcrop is possibly the worst place I could have picked to die in a forest fire – except that isn’t wood smoke I’m smelling.

Furious, I edge around the rock to find a lanky, dark-haired guy stretched out on the ground next to his pack, enjoying the views… and a joint.

“Hey, asshole! You mind not burning the whole place down?”

Well, if we both die out here in an inferno, at least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing I gave the bastard a heart attack first. The guy jumps to his feet and turns to face his attacker, looking very much like a deer in headlights. A very tall deer. I glare daggers up at him.

“What?? Oh…” he chuckles. “no no, girl, I got a system, see?”

I deepen my scowl, not least for being reduced to “girl” as I’m trying to prevent him from destroying my fucking forest. He holds up a small water bottle clouded with ash and makes a big show of carefully dropping the roach in to extinguish it. Then he sets the bottle down, straightens up to his full height, and raises his hand in a Boy Scout salute with mock sincerity on his face.

“Safety first, I always say.” A devilish smirk starts to crack the mask. “Sorry, Smokey Bear, I wish I knew you were coming, I’d have saved you a hit!” He drops his salute and ruffles up his long, unruly mop of black curls, grinning openly at last.

I roll my eyes in aggravation, but if I’m being honest with myself, it takes some willpower not to smile. Irresponsible, maybe, but this guy is also a walking master class in roguish charm. His barely-there pencil mustache lends him a demonic air, like some kind of love child between Errol Flynn and a 19th-century occultist, and the black wardrobe and giant boots don’t do much to dispel the impression. At nearly a foot taller than me, his height is imposing, but his blue eyes are friendly and encouraging. Too bad I’m not having any of it.

“Oh, how considerate of you. I’m sure the weed would really have taken the edge off of my flesh melting off in a fucking wildfire,” I mutter as I scan the ground around his smoking spot for uncontained ashes. There aren’t any. But still. Doesn’t anyone else give a shit? Why are people so irresponsible? This is why I usually avoid them, as a general rule. When I look up, Smoker Guy’s smile has faded into a sheepish wince.

“Ok, ok, you’re right. I was trying to be careful, but yeah, that was an idiotic thing to do. I’m sorry. I don’t even really smoke, ever, I just… I don’t know, I needed to get out of my own head for a bit.” The roguishnes is gone, replaced by a vulnerability so intense and sudden it knocks me back on my heels. He actually seems sincere enough that I feel a tiny bit of pity and embarrassment at having been so colossally rude.

“Ugh. You don’t have to apologize to me,” I hedge, “just… don’t be an asshole out here again.” I offer what I can manage by way of a smile, and his face splits into another wide, warm grin.

“I mean, no promises about being an asshole, but I can swear I won’t burn it down. It’s too beautiful out here!” His voice shakes a couple of birds loose from the tree above our heads.

“It really is,” I muse, scanning the horizon and settling back into some semblance of calm. Smoker Guy senses the opportunity.

“And what did you bring to share with the class, Smokey Bear?” He gestures toward my side with that grin still plastered to his face, and I realize I’m still clutching my flask.

“Bourbon, but, uh… I wasn’t expecting to find anyone else… let alone a class…” I suddenly remember my annoyance at finding any other human, even a charming one, out here in my sanctuary. If it wasn’t going to be Alex, I’m not excited about sharing it with anyone, especially if I’m out here brooding about Alex. I fold my arms, tucking the flask behind my elbow, and fix him with a scowl.

“So, uh, do you come here often?” Oh for fuck’s sake. “No, I didn’t mean it like that…”

Too late. He booms with laughter. “Well now you have to buy me a drink!” He bounds over, snatching the flask out of my hand and dangling it over my head.

The embarrassment’s gotten to me and I can’t help laughing a little now. “Sure, knock yourself out… what’s your name?”

“Chris,” he says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and passing the flask back.  “And no, this is my first time coming up here. What’s your name? I can’t just keep calling you Smokey…”

“Cora,” I frown. As I take a drink, I dig through my memory for whatever it was about his name that sparked in the back of my mind. “Chris… do I know you from somewhere? You from Seattle?”

“Yeah, I’m from Seattle, you’ve maybe seen me around…” before waiting, utterly unhelpfully, for me to place him, attempting to keep a straight face and failing miserably.

“Hang on, you’re not…” his grin widens. “Chris, like Soundgarden Chris?”

“Soundgarden Chris,” he shakes my hand a little too vigorously, almost knocking me off balance. “Chris Cornell. You know the band?”

“Yeah, I saw you guys at the Moore a few months back, February I want to say?” he nods. “You’re really good.” I’d even picked up a tape at the merch table that night.

“Usually the hair is the giveaway.” He gives his curls a shake for emphasis.

“Maybe to the more typically statured, sure. I have a hard time actually seeing a band on stage from down here.” I rock onto the tiptoes of my hiking boots.

“Fair enough. Bet people recognize you by your hair a lot, too…” he muses, making to tuck an escaped lock of it behind my ear, but I swat his hand away and shoot him a dirty look.

“Hey man, you don’t want to piss off a bear, do you?” I brush the hair off my forehead myself and sit down on one of the rocks with the best view of the valley. Chris follows and sits down next to me.

“No, not even a tiny little bear like you. But seriously, that’s a great color. Is it –”

“Yes, it’s my natural hair color…” I mutter, wary of what almost always comes next. 

“Sorry,” he grins, “just don’t spot too many natural redheads in the wild. You’re like an endangered species.”

“Okay asshole if you think I haven’t heard this fucking line before –”

“W-what line?”

“Ha ha, very funny. Endangered redheads, gotta fuck to save the species. You’re hilarious.”

I look away as I spit the words out before fixing him with a toxic glare, expecting to see him wearing the usual smartass smirk that usually accompanies such obnoxious pickup lines. Instead, his face is frozen in the perfect mix of horror and amusement.

“You… you really weren’t using a line, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t,” he says in wide-eyed bewilderment, “I promise, I was not offering to procreate with you. I mean I can, if you want, but…” the demonic smile creeps back onto his face.

I wrinkle my nose with a grin and shake my head, handing him the flask back. I’ve misjudged the poor thing a couple of times now, maybe it’s time to let up.  

“Sorry. You just wouldn’t believe…”

“Oh, I bet I would. People are animals. I’d sure as shit hate to put up with a quarter of what women have to listen to,“ he says, nodding somberly over his swig of bourbon, and I feel a surge of affection for him that is mixed with guilt for being so judgmental. We sit quietly for a while, drinking and enjoying the view, before he breaks the silence.

“So what do you do for a living, when you’re not laying waste to suitors or educating the public about the dangers of forest fires?”

“I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“Well, I’m not sure if I’d say it’s ‘for a living,’ but I guess if I’m talking to a musician, you know what that’s like. I’m a PhD student down at UW. And I just took a job waiting tables at the Cyclops in the meantime, because science isn’t exactly the best get rich quick scheme.”

Chris raises his eyebrows mid-drink, clearly curious. “Wow. PhD. Egghead, huh? I like it. What are you studying? Please tell me it’s forest fires. Or bears.” He nudges my shoulder with his, almost knocking me off-balance for the second time, and hands me back my flask.

“Hey! No, nothing like that. I am in the forest science department though…”

“I knew it! You really are Smokey Bear.”

“Ugh, no. I’m studying soils.”

“As in dirt?”

“As in dirt.”

“What about it?”

“I want to understand how changing levels of Arctic ice affect carbon storage in permafrost.”

“Come again?”

Aww, the poor thing looks genuinely interested. I take a deep breath and a swig of bourbon, mentally planning my route. The more time I spend in school, the longer and more pedantic my answer to this “what do you do” question seems to get. Maybe one day I’ll wise up and resort to one-word answers, but I have a feeling that won’t work here.

“Okay, well… the whole global warming thing, right?”

“Yeah?”  

I raise my eyebrows, pleasantly surprised by how intently he’s listening. “Ok, so the greenhouse effect… we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which traps heat and warms up the planet?” Chris nods. “So, as it gets warmer, Arctic sea ice is covering less and less land area each summer – see, in the winter the Arctic ice cap is pretty consistent, but we can learn a lot about changes in the climate by measuring how small the ice cap melts down in the summer.”

Chris is still nodding, which either means he’s utterly lost and just humoring me, or he’s actually following. I hate that I’m losing my ability to distinguish between the two.

“Well, as the planet warms up, that melting ice cap exposes progressively more and more bare soil each year -”

“Whoa there Professor, this lecture just got sexy!” He barks a laugh that echoes down the cliff, making me wince sheepishly.

“Ugh, gross. Anyway, the soil’s frozen solid –” Chris struggles to get a grip “– and we don’t know a lot about it because it’s always covered over, but the melting ice gives us the opportunity to study it better. So I’m going up there every summer and drilling holes to collect samples.”

“Wow…” he murmurs, looking genuinely impressed. “You go up there by yourself?”

“Yeah. I went last summer. I’m leaving in a few weeks for another trip.”

“Like, no one goes with you? Your boss or whatever?”

“My advisor? I think he’s a myth. He’s never around. So no, he doesn’t go with me… and what, I’m supposed to need a chaperone?”

“No, not at all, I just… that’s pretty badass, Smokey.”

“Yeah, digging in frozen dirt, it’s a fascinating life.”

“No, really, that’s incredible. People like you are going to save all this –” he gestures out at our view, with snow still visible on the highest peaks “– from the rest of us assholes, I’m sure of it. I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing.”

I can’t tell whether it’s his sincerity or the bourbon that disarms me and makes me blurt out exactly what’s on my mind. “I’m glad I met you, Chris. Not as glad as I am that you didn’t burn us to death, but still. Normally I hate people, but you’re okay.”

He grins as I pass him the last of the bourbon, which he drains. “Don’t get so effusive, you might strain something. You must really hate people if you literally go to the edge of the earth on purpose every year.”

We sit in silence for a while before Chris makes me jump by shouting, “shit, what time is it?”

“Just about 6:30.”

“Shit,” he says again, “Susan’s going to kill me, I’m going to be late.”

I arch an eyebrow. “Susan? So there’s a Mrs. Cornell? How come she didn’t get invited to your degenerate weed party in the woods?”

He shuffles a boot in the dirt and gives a small chuckle. “Yeah, I’m a newlywed, but she’s not Mrs. She kept her maiden name. Susan’s got no time for stuff like this. She’s a big shot music manager. And anyway, she’s, ah, not the outdoorsy type.”

Although Susan sounds kind of cool and I want to ask him more, the edge in his tone reminds me of this morning’s fight with Alex, so I just stand up in silence to help gather our things and hasten our exit.

We head back down the mountain together, making small talk about school, music, the neighborhood – turns out he and Susan used to live only a few blocks away from where I am now in Lower Queen Anne. I’m surprised at how quickly the time has passed when we arrive back at our cars, but the rapidly fading light confirms it’s gotten late.  

Chris hurriedly grabs a pen and a piece of paper from a notebook sticking out of his bag and jots down his number. “Cora, don’t lose this, I want to hang out again soon,” he urges. “You should come to our show! We’re playing at the Off Ramp on the 23rd, kind of a going-away thing before we head out on tour.”

“Yeah, that’s right before I go on my trip, I think I can make it.” I tuck the paper into my pocket. When I look up, Chris is already jogging toward his car.

“Drive safe!” he yells over his shoulder.

I shake my head as I climb into the Rabbit. It’s definitely not every day that one runs into a local rock legend almost burning down a forest. But at least he helped me forget about Alex for a couple of hours. Alex. I sigh as I turn the engine over and start my trip home to deal with the fallout.